Fix You
by Petit97
Summary: What if Stars Hollow didn't accept Luke and Lorelai breaking up (the second time) and decided to fix the broken couple? Starts at 7x01 and then it's totally AU – just my attempt to write JavaJunkie. Enjoy your reading (and review if you like it).
1. Chapter One – I

**Fix You**

What if Stars Hollow didn't accept Luke and Lorelai breaking up (the second time) and decided to fix the broken couple? Starts at 7x01 and then it's totally AU – just my attempt to write JavaJunkie.

Enjoy your reading (and review if you like it).

 **Notes:** First of all, this story is dedicated to **Foxes' Dreams** : you always support me through everything life throws at me and encourages me to keep going. And **Austennerdita2533** : thank you for always fangirling with me and being my personal story consultant. By the way, you guys should check the stuff these two have written.

I do not own GG. It belongs to the wonderful Palladinos, who are too good for this world, too pure.

 **Chapter One – I'm giving up on you (say something)**

 _Sookie stared at her friend in disbelief and saw her own world fall apart in front of her eyes. She took a deep breath and continued, as calmly as possible: "That's good. That's good. Uh, okay. Uh, look – things happen. People...people do things. It's not pretty. It's not Disney, but it's the real world. And you don't have to tell him. Luke doesn't have to know, and things don't have to be over."_

 _Lorelai really wanted to believe what Sookie was saying and, for a second, her brain tried to tell her heart to shut up, as long as she didn't tell Luke everything would be fine. Unfortunately, her brain wasn't that good in making arguments: "No, you don't get it. I need it to be over. I need it to be over because I can't take this anymore. Yes, I love Luke, and, yes, I wanted to marry Luke. But I didn't want a life separate from Luke, and that's all he could give me. I don't want that. If I'm gonna be with Luke, I want to be with Luke, and he didn't get it, and I waited. I mean, god, I waited. It's like Luke is driving a car, okay, and I just want to be in the passenger's seat. But he's locked the door, and so I have to hold onto the bumper, you know? I'm not even asking him to open the door for me. Just leave it unlocked and say, "come in." But no, he didn't do that, so I'm hanging onto the bumper, and life goes on, and the car goes on, and I get really badly bruised and hitting potholes. And it hurts. I mean, it hurts. So yesterday I had to let go of the bumper because it hurts too much. It hurts too much."_

 _Lorelai Gilmore was a miserable woman. But she wasn't always like that. She kept replaying the awful events from the night before, or, as she decided to call it, "The Hardest Day's Night". It all started in the back seat of a car, during a talk with Carolyn Bates. She shook her head; no, that was not when it started. This was an internal conversation, so there was no need for lying. The Hardest Day's Night started the day April showed up and took a stray of Luke's hair. The girl, of course, wasn't the problem. Luke not telling Lorelai about her was. And then he kept them apart. And then the wedding was postponed. And then Lorelai Gilmore received a visit from a guest she really hated: unhappiness. Talking with Carolyn Bates that night and actually finding strength to admit Luke was the only man she ever loved just gave her the last kick. It was now or never. Unfortunately, Luke chose to stand still when he should have taken a step forward._

 _Luke was a slow thinker. He needed time to get to conclusions. It took him eight years to ask Lorelai out... but it only took him four words to realize he had lost her._

" _Uh...a car crashed into my diner yesterday. There's a giant hole where my wall used to be. It's gonna take a couple of weeks to fix. It's a disaster, but I don't care. I mean, I care, but... you know what, no. I really – I don't care. It's like it's not even real to me. It's like my life isn't even real to me unless you're there, and you're in it, and I'm sharing it with you. And, uh, I don't know what I was waiting for, and I don't know what I was scared of, but I'm not. I'm not scared, and I'm not waiting. I'm here. Let's go. Let's do this. Let's get married right now. Let's go."_

 _"I slept with Christopher." That was all Lorelai managed to say. And then he left._

 _Luke Danes was a miserable man. But he wasn't always like that. For him, it all started in a weird day when a girl showed up to his diner and turned out to be the daughter he didn't know he had. And then for some stupid reason he thought Lorelai wouldn't understand. But she did. And then he thought she would think less of him if he couldn't be half the parent she was. But she didn't. And then he failed to see the pain in her eyes when he wanted to postpone the wedding. But she kept going. And then she asked him to elope. But he just stood still._

 _The answering machine recorded a message, and that's how the nightmare started for Rory Gilmore. Her mother, Lorelai Gilmore, the reigning Lorelai, former fiancee of Luke Danes, had slept with the one and only Christopher Hayden – also known as her dad, also known as the guy who messed up her life over and over._

Rory's feet took her for a walk, and after what felt like a hundred blocks, she found herself in front of what was left from Luke's Diner.

"Wow, that Thiago Pethit guy really knows his stuff." Rory whispered to herself before looking up and seeing Luke's shade staring at her. She nodded to the shade and headed to the back entrance.

The door was open and Luke was sitting in the couch, playing with an empty beer bottle.

"You want one?" He asked Rory.

"Uh, no thanks." She shifted uncomfortably outside the door, before deciding it was better to come in. "Soooo..." she continued slowly moving towards the couch: "you are not going to be my step-dad, after all. I mean, not that makes any difference since you have April now and..."

"Don't say that, Rory. I love you like a daughter. Just because it didn't work out between your mom and me it doesn't mean anything has to change between us. You need me, you call. You want coffee, you come by. You buy more books… well, I don't think I can find more space to fit another bookshelf at your room, but we can work something out." He gave her a weak smile, as if nothing had happened.

" _It didn't work out?_ Luke, mom loves you and I'd say you love her right back. I know what she did was terrible, but does it really have to be over?"

"Rory, listen to me: your mom and I don't belong together and I was a fool to think we could make it work. She deserves so much better than me." Luke's voice caught in his throat and he swallowed what felt like a thousand swords before continuing: "she should be with someone else; someone like… him."

Anger took over and Rory got up immediately, closing her hands into fists. "So you're giving up on her? Just like that?"

"What do you want me to do here?" Luke was also hit by anger and started to pace around the kitchen.

"Say something!" Rory yelled at him in exasperation.

But Luke didn't say anything. He just stared at her, his eyes looking as empty as his soul felt. Rory took one last look around and she felt like she should smash something for effect, so she picked up what was nearest to her hand: a pillow. Luke looked confused as he saw Rory lifting the pillow and considered whether or not to duck. Before he could make any decision, she dropped the pillow down and muttered "this is just ridiculous" before leaving the apartment.

"Hey, popcorn, we were just waiting for you." Sookie said waving Rory into Lorelai's office at the Dragonfly.

"You're late." Michel said, the thickness of his voice showing the annoyance he was feeling.

"Chill, Michel, I only called her fifteen minutes ago. Don't just stand there, come in, sit down." Sookie said pointing to an empty chair. Rory carefully and slowly walked in and took a seat, crossing her legs and placing her folded hands on top of her knees.

"Okay, now that everybody had the kindness to show up, I finally call this meeting to a start." Michel started to say before Sookie cut him off: "Michel, this is not a town meeting and you're _not_ Taylor Doose. Just tell us your plan so we can move on."

"Plan? What plan?" Rory asked confused.

"Honestly, Rory, how did Yale accepted you? Are you or are you not aware that your mother has ended her relationship with the dirty diner man who wears those distasteful flannel shirts?"

"I am aware of that, Michel. What I want to know is why I'm here."

"See, Rory, we love your mom and Luke very much, but they are way too stubborn sometimes and can't see what is right under their noses. After all those years of pining, almost weddings, real weddings, stupid fights (and real ones) and lost daughters, they can't just break up and expect us to do nothing about."

Rory stared at Sookie trying to figure out if there was any chance she was being serious because that whole thing just sounded too absurd. She chuckled softly and said: "So, you guys are planning on locking them together until they make up or something?"

Michel narrowed his eyes and his lips formed a little smile. "Actually we were thinking about hiring a big guy named Moose to beat up Luke until he came to his senses."

Rory's eyes grew and Sookie immediately jumped to the rescue. "Of course we would never _actually_ do that. It was just a thought that crossed our minds. But your idea is better."

" _My_ idea? Oh my God, Sookie. That wasn't an idea. That was a joke; it was actually something mom tried to do when my grandparents were separated. The day we did the test run she put them on room twelve and said something about them leaving re conciliated or in body bags." Rory let out a little laugh at the memory and quickly shook her head, as if dismissing the thought. "But there is no way we could that. Right guys? I mean, that would be wrong."

"Just like it was wrong to call Jason and tell him his condo was on fire." Sookie whispered more to herself than the others.

"I'm sorry, you did what?" Rory asked incredulously.

"That annoying man with the Mercedes showed up that same night and wouldn't leave for anything. And Luke was there looking all hurt. It was depressing, so I told Sookie we had to get rid of him. That was it." Michel said and fixed his eyes in a spot in the wall, avoiding Rory's gaze at all costs.

"Wow, Michel Gerard doing something altruistic. That's really impressive." Rory stated matter of factly.

"It was no big deal. Your mother had been acting all weird about Luke being here and that Jason person was here and I knew I would end up having to witness yet another of your mother's weird interactions with a man. It just seemed like the easiest way to avoid all that drama."

"Sure." Sookie said. "Anyways, we could lock them up somewhere. It can't be your house because Luke would find – or most likely make – a way out. What about Miss Patty's studio? I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"Are we really doing that? Uh, okay. Let's just think this through one more time: we are going to lock Luke and my mom in a room together in order for them to re conciliate."

"Yes, Rory. You are really slow. Are you sure your grandfather didn't bribe someone at Yale in order to get you in?"

"Michel! Be nice! Yes, Rory. That sounds about right. How long do you think it's gonna take them to make emends – or kill each other?

"With those two, one can never know. Maybe Miss Patty's place is not the best idea. It's where she works and where we have town meetings. And everybody would try to help or just want to know what was going on. We need a more isolated place. Any ideas?" Rory asked them.

"You said your mom used room twelve for your grandparents." Michel started to say.

"Maybe we should lock them in there." Sookie chipped in.

"Who are we locking where?" Jackson asked from the door.

"Luke and Lorelai." Sookie said as if it was the most obvious response in the world, then she turned to Michel and continued: "Twelve is more isolated, thus giving them the chance to yell at each other as much as they like – and those two enjoy the yelling _a lot_."

"Oh sure. Good idea." Jackson said sarcastically and turned his head to look at the sleeping Davey in his arms. "Did you hear that, Davey? That was your mom going insane. I think that I'm already a lost cause since we've been married for almost five years and I've known her way longer than that. But maybe for you and Martha there is some hope." Davey stirred a little and snuggled against his father, who sighed and said: "Yeah, that was what I thought."

"I'm not crazy, Jackson!" Sookie protested loudly. "Lorelai is miserable and I just can't have that. She is my best friend."

"I know that, honey, but if they broke up don't you think it should be their choice to get back together?"

"Normally, yest, but Lorelai doesn't know what she is doing. She loves Luke more than she ever loved any guy and she is his whole world. The problem is that they spend way too much time over thinking and being stubborn to realize just how much they need and complete each other." Sookie pleaded to her husband.

He sighed in defeat: "Are you sure that's the only way?"

"Well, we can always give Moose a call." Michel snorted and adjusted his tie.

"Moose? Who the heck is Moose?" Jackson asked Rory.

"I have no idea, but my mom has mentioned him before." Rory said with a smile.

"No one in particular, Jackson. Honestly, is there anything other than floating vegetables in your brain? We would probably get more lucky if we asked Rory to call one of her acquaintances." Michel said in a sarcastic tone.

"Acquaintances? Look, Michel, I know Logan doesn't have the best record but he never got involved with that kind of people." Rory said offended.

"Logan? I thought the rich boy was in London. Who cares about him? I was talking about the people you met during your time inside." Michel said and pursed his lips.

"My time _inside_?" Rory felt a sting in her gut at the memory of those dark months after she stole that stupid yacht and shook her head in frustration. Sookie saw Michel hit a nerve and decided to intervene. "Michel, to your corner. Now! And if I hear you mention the J word to her again I'm going to bring up the Celine Dion concert disaster of 1992. Rory, hon, we all know you made a mistake back then and no one – I said no one – is judging you for it. Let's all forget the Moose thing and plan our lockdown. So, what are we gonna need?"

"You wouldn't dare." Michel said crossing his arms over his chest.

"Just watch me." Sookie hissed with the slightest hint of irritation.

"That's enough. Let's just get back to the plan. Are we really going to do that?" Jackson asked pleadingly. Sookie gave him the death glare and he shifted Davey on his arms. "Okay, okay. I was just asking. So, the plan is to lock Luke and Lorelai on a room and then what?"

"Well, I think we should tell them why are we doing it and be sure to send food and tons of coffee. I feel like someone should take notes. Give me pen and paper, I'm writing this down." Rory said and reached for a clipboard sitting on the desk.

 _Operation L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N._

"I thought it would be fun if we did a KND kind of thing." Rory said sheepishly.

"I'm afraid you lost me here, sweetie." Sookie said frowning.

"KND, the cartoon. Each mission is an acronym. Operation L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N. meant Lurking Otherworldly Childhood Kalamity Delivers Ouchies When Naughty, but I think we can come up with something that makes more sense for us." She shrugged and kept writing.

"You really are you mother's daughter." Sookie said and shook her head laughing.

"What about Lorelai Ought Come Kick Diner Owner With Nutmeg?" Rory asked excited.

"Nutmeg? She is gonna kick Luke with a nutmeg?" Jackson asked.

"Maybe she should kick him in the..." Michel started to say, but Rory cut him off. "Don't finish that sentence, Michel. It is what it is. Let's just finish our list."

"Great idea! We're gonna need tight security. I can get the kitchen staff to take turns and Michel can threaten a few employees." Sookie said.

"Security? You don't think they would _actually_ kill each other, do you?" Rory asked worried.

"No, of course not, Rory. Don't be silly. But one of them is definitely gonna try to pull a Michael Scofield." Sookie said.

Jackson took his wallet out of his pocket and removed a ten dollars bill. "My money is on Luke. He is pretty handy. Someone is gonna break out of any place, it's him."

Michel took a twenty dollars bill and placed over Jackson's money. "I'll take that bet. But I'm sure Lorelai will be the one to break out. Once she sets her mind to something, there is no stopping her."

"Guys, how dare you? These are our friends we're talking about. Help me out, Rory." Sookie said incredulously.

"Yeah, you're right. Luke is totally gonna do it. Whenever Wentworth Miller is on the screen, mom is either staring at his eyes or trying to figure out his tattoos. If it was Litchfield, maybe she would have a chance, but the Dragonfly? No way. I bet five bucks on Luke as well."

Michel was about to collect Rory's money when Sookie waved her spoon in the middle of them. "Where did that come from?" Rory asked.

"Never leave home without one. You never know when cooking is gonna happen. Anyway, put that money away. No betting in our friends' lives."

"Ugh, fine. Let's continue, then." Michel said annoyed.

After a diaper change, two coffee breaks and three hours the plan was ready to go.

"So, everyone is clear on their part, right?" Rory asked as she put her jacket on.

"For the most part, yes. There is only one really small problem." Sookie said holding her thumb and index finger really close together. Rory nodded so she would proceed. "How do you suggest we convince Luke to come here?"

"That's an easy one." Jackson said. "We call him and say Lorelai is sick and needs his help. He will come running."

"Maybe not. It has to be something better than just 'sick'". Sookie informed her husband.

"We can always say her leg is haunted." Rory said and grinned.

Michel rolled his eyes and simply said: "You didn't trust me with any part of the plan. Let me be responsible to bring Fred Flinstone in."

"Fine. But you have to stop calling him that." Rory said.

"But they are both grumpy men who wear the same clothes everyday, don't know the concept of shaving and I can't stand neither."

"Are you sure you even want to be here, Michel?"

"As a matter of fact, I don't wish to be here at this particular moment. However, if I refused to..."

"No one cares, Michel. You're in charge of Luke. Just shut up and go home." Sookie said threateningly.

"Well, I know when my presence is no longer wanted. I'm out of here. Good night." And with that he left, not before slamming the office's door shut.

"And you're going to make sure room twelve will be ready and clear for when we set the plan to motion, right Sookie?" When Sookie nodded her heard affirmatively, Rory crossed off an item from her long list, kissed Sookie goodbye and hurried back home.

"Wow, it's been almost half a day. Are you really that mad at me, Rory?" Lorelai asked from the couch, where she was chewing some red vines.

"Oh mom, General Hospital? Again? I thought we agreed to stop watching it when you had the meltdown after Laura Spencer left."

"But Rory, both Vanessa Marcil _and_ Tracy Quartermaine returned after that. I'm a big girl". She took the remote in her hands and added in a sing song voice: "And big girls don't cry, don't cry". Lorelai patted her daughter's hand reassuringly.

"You say that now, Fergie. But anything else happens, go cry on someone else's shoulder." Rory said decisively and plopped on the couch next to her mother.

"I know what I'm doing. But that's not all; I also know what _you_ are doing."

"What are you talking about?" Rory asked innocently as she reached for a red vine.

"You, missy, are trying to change the subject and keep me away from the truth." Lorelai swatted Rory's hand away before saying: "No way. First you tell me where have you been, then you get a red vine."

Rory rolled her eyes and said: "Uh, I don't know what you're talking about. I told you I was going to Lane's just before I left."

"I remember that. Funny thing happened after you left: I ran out of ice cream and I tried calling your phone to ask you to bring some with you, but you didn't pick up. So I called Lane and she said you weren't there. In fact, she told me she didn't even speak with you today. I know Logan is in London – although he is filthy rich, maybe you went to London and came back. Come closer, let me sniff you."

"What? Are you insane? You want to sniff me? What for?"

"Well, if you went to London, you are smelling British." Lorelai stated matter of factly.

"And how exactly does British smell?" She asked curiously.

"Cut grass, chip shops, tea, rain, greasy spoons, roast, petrol and curry." Lorelai said decisively.

"I'm not even gonna ask. No, mom, I was not in London for the past twelve hours." _Twelve hours. Twelve. Room Twelve. I hope that bathroom window has already been fixed, otherwise they will have a very easy way out. I gotta check with Michel._

Lorelai startled Rory by pulling her closer and literally sniff her like she was a police dog looking for drugs. After processing the collected information for a few seconds, Lorelai seemed convinced Rory wasn't in London.

"Okay, I believe you. But if not London, where did you go?"

Rory sighed heavily before opening her mouth again: "Okay, but you have to promise me not to get mad." She searched in her mother's eyes for agreement, but Lorelai blinked three times and said: "Uh, I'm not gonna promise that and you're starting to scare me here, kid. Just spit it out."

"I went to the inn to see Sookie. She called me and she was really upset and she said I had to come over."

"Oh my God, what's wrong with her? She should have called me. Wait, did I turn my phone off again? Damn, I have to call her." Lorelai got up to look for the phone, but Rory stopped her: "That's not all, mom. Please sit down."

"She asked for my help because she is worried about you. She doesn't think you're thinking straight and that you're gonna regret just letting Luke walk away."

" _Letting him?_ Rory, he chose to walk away. We already talked about this. It was over way before my ultimatum, I just didn't want to believe. And we're done with this conversation" Lorelai finished angrily.

"Mom, please. You promised you wouldn't be mad." Rory pleaded with Lorelai.

"No, I didn't." She yelled. "Next time you talk to Sookie, you let know that as well. I'm going upstairs." She stormed out of the room and Rory heard one last shout from her mother's bedroom: "and stay away from my vines."

"That went well." Rory muttered to herself.

Luke got up and hopped in the shower, like he always did. Then, he put on his jeans, boots and a flannel, like he always did. But when his eyes landed on the blue cap, his hands wouldn't obey his brain's command; he couldn't bring himself to put it on. He closed his eyes for a second and pulled a box from his closet.

" _I can't believe you actually have a box full of baseball caps, Luke. That's just hilarious. Especially for someone who keeps complaining about the amount of shoes I buy."_

 _Luke looked at Lorelai and shrugged saying: "I don't have to bring them with me. I can leave them here in the apartment."_

" _What?" She said surprised. "No way." Lorelai hugged him from behind and whispered in his ear: "I want ALL of Luke to come live with me." He smiled and turned around, placing a sweet kiss in her temple._

He rummaged though the box's content and reluctantly picked a black cap to wear. He stopped in front of the mirror and shook his head in disbelief. _So this is what heart broken looks like. Pathetic._ Luke looked around his apartment and his eyes landed on his wallet. He felt sick to the stomach thinking about the folded horoscope inside and considered whether or not to throw it away.

 _Lorelai came home one night and found Luke sitting in the couch sipping a beer with a box sitting on the coffee table._

" _Finally", she said excited. "I thought_ _you would never bring your stuff here."_

" _This is not mine", he said._

" _What do you mean 'not yours'?" She eyes the box suspiciously for a moment before opening it and recognizing the content. It was her Max Medina Box. "Luke, please share your thoughts with me. Out loud." She sat next to him and saw hurt in his eyes. Lorelai intertwined her hand with his and turned to face him. "Listen to me really carefully", she started softly, "I love you, Luke Danes and I want to marry you and I want you to live with me in this beautiful house you have fixed for me over and over again."_

" _Why do you keep his stuff? I mean, Christopher I get it. I don't like, but he is Rory's dad so I can live with a couple of his pictures around. But Max? I know I have some of Rachel's pictures in my drawer, but even you said you liked them and there's that amazing one she took of us a couple of years ago. And I told you I could get rid of them if you wanted."_

 _Lorelai laughed and got up, pulling him towards the hall closet. She picked a couple of boxes and dropped them to their feet. She opened one by one and proceed to show her fiancee the contents of each and everyone of them. "This is my Patrick Harper Box. He was the first relationship I had_ _after Rory was born. I was 21, he was around 27. It only lasted a few years, but it was enough time for me to receive a few letters, gifts and tons of chocolate. This one is my Sam Houaiss Box and this tiny one is my Jason Stiles Box. I keep this boxes because they are my past; all the choices I've ever made, all the paths I've ever chosen are what brought me right to this moment, so I don't wanna forget it ever happened."_

 _Luke's lips formed that huge smile only Lorelai got to see. Once again, Luke Danes was amazed by Lorelai Gilmore._

" _What about those?" Luke asked pointing to the other boxes, still in the closet._

" _Those are Rory's boxes. The Dean Box and… The Jess Box." She finished in a whisper._

 _Luke nodded and pulled her close to him. He leaned forward and stopped just a few centimeters from her lips. "I love you, Lorelai Gilmore. And I can't wait to be married to you." She smiled and closed the gap between them. It was a long and sweet kiss, full of love and dreams._

Luke shook his head. No matter how much it hurt to carry that piece of paper, he couldn't let go of it. He sighed and went downstairs to open his diner.

"Luke, people are hungry here." Kirk demanded from his stool at the counter.

"I'll be right there, Kirk. Stop yelling."

Luke seemed more on edge than usual and that didn't go unnoticed by the people from Stars Hollow. The moment Kirk spotted the owner of the diner that made him (open) and shut down Kirk's Diner, he knew something was wrong, but failed to see what. That's when he called for back up. Not very long after Kirk made the call, Babette and Miss Patty were sitting at their usual table looking around and making mental notes of everything around them.

"Good morning, ladies. What can I get you?" Zach asked, paper and pen ready to work.

"I don't think you want the actual answer to that question, darling." Miss Patty said in a naughty tone and Babette burst out laughing. Zach stared at them, his eyes blank and his feet planted at the spot.

"Just bring that handsome boss of yours over here." Miss Patty said and waved her hand dismissively.

Zach nodded and turned to leave when Babette held his arm. "And don't forget the oatmeal, okay sugar?"

He smiled at the woman and said: "Wouldn't dream of it. Be right back with the meal and the man." Zach winked and walked away.

"You want me, Patty?" Luke asked annoyed.

"All day long." She purred placing a hand on his arm. His face turned all fades of red and the women saw that he was in no mood for jokes.

"We just wanted to check on you, sugar." Babette said softly. "Lorelai hasn't left the house and then the accident with the diner..."

"I'm fine, thanks." He cut in sharply and went back behind the counter.

"Oatmeal and another refill. Anything else I can do for you?" Zach asked the ladies.

"No, we're good for now. Thanks, handsome." Miss Patty said.

"You saw the cap?" Babette asked jerking her thumb towards the counter.

"I did, indeed. What do you think that means?" Miss Patty wondered out loud.

"I have no idea, but I know someone who does." Babette said with a decisive nod.

"Lorelai? We can't ask her that. It's too soon. You just said she has barely left the house."

"The other Lorelai." Babette barely finished her sentence when the other Lorelai, or Rory as she preferred to be called, walked by the window outside the diner, waving at the two women. They waved back excitedly and motioned for her to get in.

"Hi Babette, hi Miss Patty. How is it going?"

"Couldn't be better, doll."

"You're not gonna grow any taller, honey. Please sit down."

The women talked, laughed and made Rory uncomfortable before getting to the point.

"So, Rory, tell me something. What's the deal with the blue cap?" Miss Patty asked.

Rory nearly choked on her coffee before staring at the dance teacher with her giant blue eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Honey, this innocent look might work on Luke, but we old broads are already immune to you." Babette added with a big laugh.

"I don't know what you mean. Mom gave Luke a blue cap a couple of years ago. Nothing more."

Just when Miss Patty was about to continue her interrogation, Luke started to approach and she decided to stop. _At least for the time being._

"Blueberry muffin." Luke announced before putting the plate in front of Rory.

"Thanks, Luke." He gave her a weak smile and started making his rounds to refill his other costumers' cups.

"Good morning, Michel." Rory said when she reached the front desk at the Dragonfly.

"Morning." He spitted back.

"Wow, quite a good mood this morning, huh?"

"You should know. Your mother decided to not show up for work. _Again_."

"Right, of course. That's why we have to rush the plan. Tell the window guy to fix room twelve and this whole thing is gonna be over. Is Sookie in the kitchen?"

"Yes. Go ahead. Leave me here, alone. Working like a dog."

Rory rolled her eyes and made her way to the kitchen ignoring Michel's complaints.

"Hello, popcorn. Coffee will be ready in a minute. Sit down, I'll bake you something."

"Thanks Sookie! I should come over more often."

"You definitely should. But something tells me you're not here only for my baked goods."

Rory sighed and confessed: "Yeah, you caught me. I've been to Luke's today. He is not wearing the blue cap."

"The one your mother gave him? But he always wears it."

"He had a black one on." She reported.

"Are you sure? Maybe the light reflected and..."

Rory cut her off with a sad "no" and continued in defeat. "What if we are too late?"

"Don't say that. He still loves her, I'm sure."

"We've got a problem." Michel announced from the kitchen's entrance.

Both Rory and Sookie stared at the french concierge waiting for him to continue, but he just stood there, hands on pockets and lips pursed.

"So? You said we have a problem. What is it?" Sookie asked nervously.

"Not here. Follow me."

Reluctantly, the two of them followed Michel into Lorelai's office and waited for him to speak up.

"Room twelve is not available anymore."

"What? But I thought you had reserved it." Rory said confused.

"I did, but apparently your mother had someone check it and found out it was empty. Last night someone called the inn and they'll be arriving later today." He informed the girls.

"Well, we can always wait a couple more days." Sookie suggested.

"No way!" Rory protested. "We are running out of time. Let's pick another one."

"Here is the list, let me check… No, I'm sorry, we're completely booked."

"Check again." Sookie said.

Michel looked at least from top to bottom, but came back empty again. "We're completely booked."

"Michel, you can't be serious. Let me see this." Rory took the list out of Michel's hands and ran her eyes through it.

"We are completely booked." She whispered in disbelief.

"I already told you that." Michel hissed annoyed.

"Yeah, but the people from room number seven are leaving the day after tomorrow, which fits our timeline perfectly.

"Great. Crisis averted. Michel, just one last thing: why couldn't we talk in the kitchen?" Sookie asked.

Michel shrugged and said: "I just thought this was more official."

"Thanks for staying with us. I hope you enjoyed Stars Hollow." Lorelai said to the guests checking out.

"Oh we just loved, right John? The city is really something else. We're looking forward to bring our kids here next year. Give our compliments to your chef."

"I'll be sure to do so. Have a nice trip. Bye." She wave and the happy couple left.

While Lorelai kept her gaze on the couple, she didn't notice Sookie watching the whole scene from the hallway and running towards the kitchen just after the guests left.

"Jackson? It's me. The plan is a go. I repeat: the plan is a go." Sookie closed her phone and started humming "At Last" while chopping some vegetables.

"Mom?" Rory asked from the top of stairs at the Dragonfly. "You gotta check this out."

"What's up, hon?" Lorelai asked. "Can't you come down? I'm old and tired."

"You are gonna want to see this." Rory said decisively.

"Okay, I'm going." By the third step, Lorelai blinked and muttered "shoot" before going down again.

"What's wrong?"

"I gotta let Michel know I'm coming up. Be right back."

"Okay, I'm in room number seven."

"Michel! I need you to watch the front desk for a few minutes." _Room sever. Lucky number seven. The same room Luke stayed in the night of the test run._

"Lorelai, stop yelling. I'm coming."

"Well, hurry. I have to go to room number seven really quickly. I know it's your break, but Rory said is urgent. And I have reasons to believe it is The Lost related. We might finally be getting a trailer for the movie. And the book was just sooooo good." She batted her eyelashes at him and waited for any kind of response.

"Fine. Go." He muttered under his breath.

"Michel? Aren't you forgetting something?" Sookie asked desperately after Lorelai left.

He looked around the kitchen searching for a hint, but came up empty. "No, I don't think so."

"Operation L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N.? You were supposed to call Luke the minute Rory got Lorelai to room seven."

"Uh, sure. As soon as my break is over."

Sookie shook her head and ran to the front desk.

" _Luke's." The diner owner barked into the phone._

"Luke? This is Sookie."

" _Hey Sookie. Is everything okay? You sound kind of worried."_

"No, Luke. Something has happened. I need you to come to the Dragonfly."

The pen Luke was holding fell from his hands and worry took over his blue eyes. Sookie could hear he swallow a lump in his throat before asking "is it Lorelai?" and felt really bad for the lie. _It's for the greater good. Just like that Machiavelli guy said: the end justifies the means. Right? Right._

"Yes, Luke. I need you to come here right now."

" _What happened?" He asked fighting to get the words out._

 _Wrong. I can't do this. This is wrong._ It was too late. Guilty took over Sookie and she hung up.

Luke heard the clicking sound and knew Sookie wasn't there anymore, but he couldn't let go of the receiver. His head kept replaying _Something has happened. I need you to come to the Dragonfly_ over and over and over and his mind went insane with terrible scenarios and all of them involved Lorelai getting deeply hurt. Luke Danes didn't think twice: he looked around and saw his diner packed, but there was no time for that. He patted his jeans' pockets in look for his keys but came up empty. Luke shut his eyes really hard and tried to make his minds tell him where the he last saw them. _I left them in the truck._ He ran around back and started the engine immediately.

 _A hysteric Lorelai looked out the window and noticed how fast the other cars were going. No, wait. "We're being passed by senior citizens." She said annoyed._

 _"I'm going as fast as I can." Luke said trying to remain calm._

 _"Bye Grandma, bye." Lorelai said sarcastically and waved her hand for effect._

 _"There's ice on the road, those people aren't being safe." He tried to argue._

 _"Well maybe they're not being safe but at least they're getting somewhere." She shot back at him._

 _Lorelai was being annoying, and a bit rude if Luke was gonna be honest. But her father was in the hospital, so Luke didn't take it personally. He knew exactly just how terrifying it was to have a parent sick._

 _"Oh, you're psychic now? You're suddenly getting visions while you're driving 20 mph in the oldest truck known to man? I'm sorry, you're killing yourself to get me there and I'm yelling at you. I don't mean it." Lorelai stared at the phone in her hands and hated herself for not fighting back with Emily on the un-invitement to the Christmas party._

 _Luke saw out of the corner of his eyes the struggle she was going through and couldn't take it: his foot lowered a little more and the speedometer went a little higher. Lorelai gave him a smile as a form of thanks and he nodded in response._

Just like that day all those years ago, once again, Luke Danes' speedometer went a little higher. When he finally reached the Dragonfly, he looked around searching for a direction, but everything seemed quiet. There was no sign of fire, so it was a good start. _Maybe she fell; Lorelai is known to be a little klutz._

"Rory, hon, I see no sign whatsoever of the trailer."

"What?" Rory asked with genuine confusion.

"The Lost, based on Jack Ketchum's book? We've been waiting for this movie forever."

"There isn't a trailer, yet. Why would you ask me that?"

"Now I'm confused. If the trailer wasn't released yet, what could be so urgent?"

"Mom, take a seat please."

Lorelai saw the look in her daughter's eyes and didn't like the view. She approached the chair carefully and slowly sat down, folding her hands on her lap. "Okay. I'm here, I sat down. Now talk."

Rory looked around and went through the plan one last time in her head. She checked her watch and, if everything went right, Luke was due to arrive in about eight minutes. _That's a lot of time to kill. Think, Rory, think._ Rory's mind did a search of everything she could use as a stalling tactic, but came up empty.

Lorelai Gilmore knew for a fact she wasn't very good in being a daughter – or at least that's what her parents, especially her mom, always led her to believe. However, she was always proud of the fact she had motherhood pretty much down and a big part of being a mother was the ability to see when your kid is lying through her teeth. Just like Rory was doing now.

"Uh, Rory, I know you wanted me to come up here, but the excuse you're trying to make is not going to stick, so it's better if you just tell me. I mean, you've been acting pretty weird this past couple of days."

Rory knew there was no getting out now. She would have to tell her mom the truth and hope for the best. But just when she was about to open her mouth someone knocked on the door.

"Come in." Rory said relieved.

The knight in shining armor – or vegetable's grower in a green beanie – was Jackson Belleville, who came to the rescue along little Davey.

"Lorelai, I'm so glad I found you. Could you watch Davey for a moment? I have to check the zucchini patch and Sookie doesn't want this little guy walking around the inn unsupervised. I would leave him in the kitchen, but you know, too many knives."

"No problem. Let's go downstairs, I bet we can drive Michel to an early retirement in no time." Lorelai said excitedly.

"Do you think you could keep him here?" Jackson asked.

"You mean in this room?" Lorelai asked confused.

Jackson heard shouting coming from the entrance and considered his part done.

"On second thought, you have to work. Rory, why don't you keep Davey company for me? I promise I won't be long." He pleaded to the girl.

She pretended to consider for a moment and then got up to hold Davey's hand.

"But wait!" Lorelai said. "Rory, didn't you want to talk to me?"

"Uh, it can wait." Rory shrugged and left as fast as possible. Jackson followed her and Lorelai was just about to do the same, but she crashed in someone knocking them both to the floor. Luckily for Rory and Jackson, they fell inside the room, so they only had to lock it and run away as fast possible.

Luke saw Lorelai struggling to get up in her heels and quickly went to her rescue. She thanked him and they exchanged a simple smile, and that's when realization hit them both.

"What are you doing here, Luke?"

"Sookie called me and said you got hurt, so I came running and now I'm realizing you're just fine. I can show myself out, don't bother."

He tried the knob, but it didn't work. He tried two more times and then he tried to force the door open.

"Is something wrong with this door?" He asked Lorelai.

"I don't know, maybe it got stuck. Let me get someone to open. Just a sec." She picked up the phone next to the bed and dialed the front desk.

"Dragonfly Inn, Michel speaking."

"Michel, it's me." Luke heard her pause and grunt before continuing. "Lorelai." Another pause. "Gilmore. How many Lorelais Gilmore do you know besides me and Rory? Ugh, doesn't matter. Listen: Luke and I got stuck in room seven, so could you please come up or send Rory?"

"Sure. Your off-spring is on her way."

Rory took the key and a deep breath before going up. _Show time_.

"Finally. I don't know what happened to the door." Lorelai said when Rory came in.

"I locked it." Rory said nonchalantly.

"I'm sorry, _you locked it?_ " Luke asked incredulously.

"Yes. This is a L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N." She said decisively.


	2. Chapter Two - Lockdown

Hello, my wonderful readers! Thank you so much for sticking around here.

I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but life has been just crazy.

Hope you enjoy!

 **Chapter Two – Lockdown**

 _Previously…_

 _Rory took the key and a deep breath before going up. Show time._

" _Finally. I don't know what happened to the door." Lorelai said when Rory came in._

" _I locked it." Rory said nonchalantly._

" _I'm sorry, you locked it?" Luke asked incredulously._

" _Yes. This is a L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N." She said decisively._

"What did you just say?" Luke asked in disbelief.

"Lockdown. She just spelled lockdown." Lorelai chipped in impatient.

"I can spell, thank you very much." Luke hissed at her angrily.

"Both of you stop and listen to me very carefully: room number seven is now officially under lockdown and both of you are to stay here until this whole situation has been resolved."

"Situation? What situation?" Luke asked.

"The break up." Rory answered.

"Rory, there's no situation. It's over." Lorelai said crossing her arms protectively over her chest.

"Yeah, we're not accepting that."

"We? Who's we?" They both asked in unison.

"Me, Sookie, Michel and Jackson. We've decided to lock you both here until you either get back together or kill each other." Rory explained.

"Are you kidding me? This has got to be illegal." Luke said pacing around a chair.

"Hon, I appreciate what you're trying to accomplish here, but that's not how things work." Lorelai started softly.

"Stop right there. This is not up for discussion. Here are the rules: you stay here, talk, yell… do your thing. We will send food, don't worry. And before you even consider put your Prison Break knowledge to good use, all windows have been sealed. If you attempt to break the door down, the whole staff is under instructions to put you back here or any other available room. Do either of you have any questions?" Rory looked at both of them and they were frozen in place, unable to put any words together in order to form sentences.

She took their silence in and continued: "Okay, one last thing and I'm out of here. I really don't think either of you is capable of murder. However, in case that happens, promise me there will be no attempt whatsoever to replay Weekend at Bernie's. Have fun. See you at lunch." And with that she locked the room from the outside and left again.

"What are we waiting for, Patty?" Gypsy asked annoyed.

"I have no idea. Jackson called this meeting and Taylor wasn't really happy about it." The dance teacher answered from the stage.

The townies started whispering to each other and didn't notice Jackson going to the stage and taking Taylor's usual spot. They also didn't notice Taylor muttering _this is a terrible idea_ before taking a seat next to Miss Patty.

Jackson looked around and suddenly felt really nervous. His eyes landed on his wife, who immediately gave him an encouraging smile and raised her thumbs up excitedly.

"Okay, people, order." Jackson said ineffectively. Miss Patty gently placed her hand on his shoulders and whispered _you can do better than that, honey_ into his ears, which earned a death glare from Sookie.

Jackson cleared his throat and took a deep breath, already preparing for what was yet to come.

"C'mon guys, pay attention up here, please. I promise this is gonna be quick."

Everybody immediately stopped talking and looked up, obviously confused by the scene in front of them.

"I think someone wants to play town selectman again." Andrew said and earned a laugh from most of the townies.

"Hush you!" Sookie hissed from her seat.

Andrew backed away and Jackson began to explain the whole situation.

"I'm sure everybody is aware that Luke and Lorelai broke up." He started and Taylor interrupted saying _again_ and rolling his eyes.

"Yes, _again_. However, this time around we decided that we're not gonna wait until they realize what a mistake they are making."

"Who's we?" Kirk asked confused.

"Well, Sookie, Michel, Rory and I kind of came up with a plan to bring them back together."

"And I just would like to point out that I had absolutely nothing to do with said plan." Taylor warned from his seat.

"Shut up, Taylor! What's the plan, Jackson?" Miss Patty asked curiously.

Jackson rubbed the back of his head nervously before answering: "We kind of locked them up in a room at the Dragonfly and they can't leave until they either reconciled or killed each other."

For the first time ever, all the of Stars Hollow was silent. Jackson looked around in search of any kind of reaction but all faces were a pure blank. A minute later everybody – except for Sookie, Jackson and Taylor – started laughing hysterically. Babette fell to the ground and Morey had to help her up, Gypsy was snorting as loudly as human possible. Even Kirk burst out laughing. After what seemed like forever, the dance studio quieted down and Jackson tried to speak again.

"Guys, seriously. It wasn't that funny."

"Okay, Jackson. Thanks for the laugh. Now, let's get down to business. I think everybody is down with the idea of helping Luke and Lorelai, but what's the _real_ plan?" Lane asked from her seat.

Sookie got up and decided her husband was gonna need some help. "He is serious, guys. They are on lockdown in room number seven at the inn."

Everybody looked at Sookie in search of a sign she was joking, but couldn't find any.

"Okay." Miss Patty started to say, "and what can we do to help?"

"I think we've got the inn covered, but I'm sure Luke wants to find the diner up and running when he comes back." Jackson said.

"That's not a problem. I obviously am the most experienced when it comes to diners, since I had one of my own, so I'll be in charge of Luke's." Kirk said determinedly.

"Uhm, Kirk, I'm sure you mean well, but it might be better if Caeser and I handle the diner." Lane said softly.

After considering it for a moment, he sighed and agreed. "Yeah, you're probably right. I have so many jobs right now it wouldn't be a good idea."

"Since this is an intervention of sorts I believe we have a best shot taking turns to talk them down." Gyspsy suggested.

"Good idea, doll. Let's divide everybody into shifts." Babette agreed.

"Are you really considering helping?" Taylor asked in disbelief. "This is preposterous!"

"Oh, Taylor, please. You keep talking and we'll put you down with Kirk." Andrew said and the market's owner sat back down in his chair.

Jackson checked the list one last time and called the meeting to an end.

"I can't believe she did that. What the heck was she thinking?" Lorelai asked throwing her hands in the air.

"I can. She is _your_ daughter, after all." Luke said.

"If it's any consolation, I'm starting to feel a little bit like Julia Roberts felt towards Patrick Bergin in Sleeping With the Enemy."

"Being stuck with me here is that bad?" He asked with a hint of hurt in his voice.

"What? No! I'm not talking about you, I'm talking about Rory. I'm Laura and she is Martin. Actually, if there was a hammer around I'd say we're Paul Sheldon and she is Annie Wilkes."

"Who are we?"

"Misery, Luke. Stephen King's novel, movie with Kathy Bates. You gotta keep up." She said snapping her fingers at him.

Sookie went back to the Dragonfly and ran to the kitchen to assess the damage her assistants had done while she was out. After doing some yelling, breaking a couple of things and setting fire to others, the cook prepared a meal to her two friends in confinement.

She opened the door slowly and got in with her hands covering her eyes.

"Is everybody decent?"

"Jeez, Sookie, of course. Just come in." Luke said.

"Okay, just checking. Bring it in, boys." Sookie said and three waiters entered Lucky Number 7 and deposited plates and beverages on the table.

"Is the whole town coming?" Luke asked when he saw the amount of food.

"I know I eat a lot, Sook. But even I think this is too much." Lorelai agreed.

"Oh, don't be silly. You'll finish it in a flash." She assured them.

"Thank you, Sookie." Luke said softly.

"Anytime! I have to go back, now. But, if you need anything, who you gonna call?" Sookie asked.

"Uhm, Ghostbusters?" Lorelai answered and burst out laughing

"Yes!" Sookie said excitedly. "But, you know, maybe they are busy or something and you guys are really hungry…"

"Sure, Sook. We'll call you. Thanks." Lorelai added and hugged her friend goodbye.

"Okay, let's see what we have here: a couple of beers and some wine." She rummaged through the plates and carefully took one of the pile.

"What are you doing?" Luke asked.

"There's salad in this one." Lorelai answered.

"So? You don't have to eat it."

"I know that. But if I leave it next to the others too long, it can spread its essence around."

"Its _essence_?"

"Exactly. And all the food will taste like salad."

"God forbid you eat salad." He commented statistically.

"I'm really glad we have an understanding here."

"Just give me the salad and a beer. You can keep the wine and eat the other stuff."

"Oh, such a gentleman."

"Yes. Parked my white horse just next to Cletus."

"I'm serious, Luke. If I was locked in with Rory, there would be fight for food. The salad would be down in a second. The beer and the wine probably wouldn't cause any issues. But this beautiful stake and its little I friends? Major slapping around."

"Little I friends?"

"The fries."

"I don't understand how your mind words."

"Neither do I, to be honest."

They sat down and ate quietly. Exchanging a few smiles and looks here and there, both of them at a loss of what to say.

"Uh, Luke?" Lorelai said indecisively.

"What?"

"I just want you to know I'm really sorry. It wasn't about you, it was about me. I needed it to be over because I was hurt, so I went to the place where I knew I'd be wanted."

"I did want you. More than anything in the world." He said sternly.

 _I know. I wanted you too. I still want you. More than anything in the world._

She just nodded and continued to eat. He gave her one last look and went back to his food as well.

"I'm gonna take a nap."

"Sure, go ahead." Luke said with a shrug.

Lorelai took off her shoes and adjusted herself on the bed while Luke sat on the chair just staring at his shoes.

"You can join me, if you want. The bed is pretty big and I promise..." He raised his hand up and she stopped talking.

"Stop. Just stop, will you?"

"Okay. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to..."

And that's when all that fake politeness rubbed off and their inner anger took over. The calm and the control ran away and shouting took its place, putting their lungs to very good use…

"You didn't mean to, but you did. You screamed at me out of nowhere and gave me an ultimatum and just as quickly you walked away. I spent the whole night packing and thinking about you and then, in the morning when I went looking for you I have to hear from Babette that you didn't spend the night home. _Again_. And in the moment I finally find you, ready to leave and get married you tell me that you slept with… him of all people. You know what I did after that? I got into the truck and I drove all the way to his house and _I punched him_. And it felt damn good."

"You punched Chris?"

"Can you please not say his name?

"Luke, I'm really sorry I slept with Chr.. him. But, honestly, you are in no place of demanding anything. Was I wrong when I did it? Yeah, maybe I was. But I was just so damn tired of waiting around for you. First, you are the one who makes the no secrets rule and immediately breaks it. FOR MONTHS. And I'm not even talking about that house you bought us without telling me. You had a kid, and for some reason you thought I wouldn't understand. I had a kid at 16 and ran away from home; then I raised her on my own. And you thought I wouldn't understand. Plus, you postponed our wedding. I had the perfect date."

"Now, just wait a minute, there! You were the one who suggested it."

"Oh my God. Are you really that clueless? Luke, you had to know it took all my strength to not burst out crying when you agreed to that. When I suggested it, you should have said _no way, I wanna marry you_."

"I did want to marry you."

"It didn't feel like it."

"I had April and everything got out of control."

"Screw you!"

"If I recall, we had to wait for months because of _your_ daughter."

"Do not blame this on Rory. She has nothing to do with this." She yelled motioning between the two of them.

"Of course she does. You refused to get her back from your parents' house."

"And you think I didn't wanna marry you because of that? That, my friend, was about Rory growing up on her own and taking responsibility for what she did. If I recall, I'm the one who proposed."

"Screw you!"

"Great come back!" She said sarcastically.

"You know what? I'm going to bed." Luke said and took off his boots. He started mimicking her voice and said: "You can join me if you want."

"Fine!" She said and turned to face the door.

"Fine!" He shouted back and faced the other side of the room.

When Lorelai heard Luke snoring, she was sure he had fallen asleep. And that's when she started crying, sobbing as quietly as she could and trying to remain as still as possible.

Luke got up a couple of hours later and Lorelai was still sleeping. He hated to admit, but he hadn't slept that well for a while now. Just being next to her seemed to make all better. She woke up just a few minutes later and found Luke reading a book.

"Hey." She said sheepishly.

He put the book down and looked up, ready for round two. But when his eyes landed on hers, Luke just couldn't do it. He knew she was crying and, although he was mad at her, he never liked to see her crying.

Luke opened and closed his mouth a few times, trying to decide what was the best thing to say.

"How are you feeling, Lorelai?" He asked, not taking his eyes off hers.

"Honestly, I don't know. I think I'm starting to understand Bonnie Tyler."

"Excuse me?"

"You know, I used to think Cyndi Lauper knew it all. Now, I'm not so sure."

"Okay, you completely lost me."

"I used to think it was all about Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. However, my life right now looks exactly like once upon a time I was falling in love, now I'm only falling apart."

Luke got up and his brain kept telling him to run to Lorelai and hug her tight until that whole thing passed and they could go back to normal – or, at least, the closest thing to normal those two could have. He saw a movie flashing through his eyes: Lorelai and him were happy together, but before he could enjoy it, he saw himself back at his apartment all alone and it hurt too much. He shut his eyes and rubbed them to get rid of that weird feeling. Luke opened his eyes, but there was no movie this time. Only an incredible sinking Lorelai looking at him. Waiting. Once again, his brain told his feet to move, but, once again, his feet kept him still. And that was just the beginning (of the end).

"Ceaser, I'm back!" Lane shouted from the counter.

"Hey, Lane." He said back. "How's was the meeting?"

"It was pretty interesting. And there's something we need to talk about it."

"Sure. By the way, have you heard from Luke? I know he and Lorelai had a thing, but he ran out of here hours ago and I can't reach him."

"That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. Luke won't be coming in for a while."

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah. Lorelai and Luke broke up, but Rory, Sookie, Jackson and Michel didn't really agree with it, so they are kind of locked in at the Dragonfly." Lane explained like it was a very normal situation.

"Right." Ceaser nodded, still confused.

"So, we kind of need to step up our game and take care of everything while he isn't around."

"Sure, no problem. Just one question: how long do you think that's gonna take?"

"Knowing Luke and Lorelai… _a lot_. They are the most stubborn people ever."

"You got that right." Ceaser agreed with a laugh.

"Hellooooo!" Rory sang after entering the room. "How are my two favorite prisoners?"

"Have I mentioned how much I hate you?" Lorelai asked.

"Actually, yes. Several times. And that's why I'm here." Rory answered hapilly.

"You're gonna let us out?" Luke asked with a hint of hope.

"Oh, Luke, you're smarter than that. I'm here to take your phones away." Rory explained.

"Why would you wanna do that for?" He asked.

"Because _someone_ has been texting me every fifteen minutes or so."

"Seriously, Lorelai?" Luke asked.

"Don't look at me like that. She locked us here." Lorelai pleaded.

"Now, it's all up to you."

"How long are you gonna to keep this up?" Luke asked.

"Like U2 said, I still haven't found what I'm looking for." Rory said.

"How dare you quote U2 in a situation like this?" Lorelai asked horrified.

"I can always quote Blondie and tell you to call me on the line and call me anytime."

Luke smirked and said: "She is so your daughter."

"And I hate her for it."

"Okay, I feel like that's my cue to leave. There's coffee coming up in a sec."

"Thanks, hon. Love you."

Rory stopped and looked back at her mom.

"Do you really? Or is it because of the coffee?"

"Aw, you know me so well." Lorelai said softly.

"See you soon." Rory said with a wave.

He shook his head and let out a laugh. "I still have the CDs, you know?"

"Really?" Lorelai asked shyly.

"Couldn't throw them away."

"I have that spatula."

"That's impressive."

"What do you mean by that?" Lorelai said offended.

"Please, your house is a mess." Luke said.

"No, it's not." She protested. He just stared at her and she gave in. "Yes, it is. I'm not big on the house keeper thing."

"How did you survive working all those years as a maid?"

"I'll have you know I was very good at my job. Still am."

"If you say so." He muttered.

"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that last part."

"The inn did burn. Two times."

"It was two different inns." She defended herself.

"And you think that makes it any better?" Luke said with a laugh.

"I still don't know how to use that spatula." She admitted sheepishly.

"I tried to teach you, remember?" He asked with a smile.

" _Luke, have I told you how good is your cooking?" Lorelai asked hugging Luke from behind._

" _Just every time I make you coffee and pancakes at 6 in the morning. But thank you."_

" _What's with the spoon thingy?"_

" _It's not a spoon. It's a spatula."_

" _Right. I knew that. I was just testing you." She assured him._

" _Come here." Luke said motioning for her to take his place. "Now, hold the spatula and turn the pancakes."_

" _Wow, back up a little. Let's try again everything you said after I stood here."_

 _Luke let out a laugh and took a step closer, standing behind Lorelai._

" _Are you trying to teach me how to cook or to do something else?" She said with an arched eyebrow._

" _Pay attention."_

 _Lorelai turned to face him and dropped the spatula. "I am."_

" _On the cooking lesson." Luke adverted._

 _She stood on the tip of her toes and took Luke's cap from his head. Lorelai leaned in and gently pecked Luke's lips._

 _He put his arms around her waist and gently pushed her against the counter._

" _How badly you want to teach me how to cook?" She whispered on his ear._

 _He looked up, pretending to think for a moment and she shoved him playfully._

" _Not that much." He admitted. "Why, do you have something else in mind?" Luke asked innocently._

" _Uhm, maybe I do. Follow me." She said tugging on his hand and pulling him upstairs._

"I do remember that. Great lesson." Lorelai said and licked her lips.

"How do you think it's going?" Sookie asked Rory.

"I dunno. Did you hear the shouting?"

"I think the whole state of Connecticut did as well." Sookie commented.

"But that's a good sign." Rory said hopeful. "I mean, they are very good at that."

Michel entered the kitchen and started to tap his foot on the floor until he got Sookie and Rory's attention.

"Yes, Michel?" Sookie asked.

"I'm tired and I wanna go home." He said annoyed.

"What does have to do with us?" Rory asked.

"I can't! Your mother and the scruffy man haven't made up yet and I have no one to cover her shift." He explained.

"No problem. You go home. I'll cover for you and tomorrow we can make a schedule or something." Rory said with a shrug.

"Oh, Rory, don't. What about school?" Sookie asked worriedly.

"I still have a few days before I need to go back. And since Logan isn't here, I don't really have anything else to do. I don't mind."

"Are you sure, popcorn?"

"I'm sure. Michel, just show me what to do."

"Absolutely." The french concierge said happily and went back to the front desk.

"So, I have to answer calls and take reservations?"

"Yes. But your mother does inventory when everything is quiet." Michel said and pursed his lips.

"Nice try, Michel. I know for a fact she only does inventory to avoid something. Otherwise, she always dumps it on you." Rory said with a knowing smirk.

"It was worth a try. Good night." He said and left the inn.

Lorelai started looking frantically around the room when her eyes landed on the man wearing plaid. He saw the look in her eyes and immediately knew she was up to no good.

"What?" He asked.

"You're not gonna like it." She said in an almost inaudible voice.

"Just go ahead and say it."

"I need a pen."

"That's it?"

"Where's yours?"

"No, not this again. Lorelai, I don't carry a pen around with me wherever I go."

"But you own a diner."

"I'm not in he diner right now."

They fell into silence for a few moments and Lorelai coughed a little.

"Sooooooo, does that mean you _don't_ have a pen?" She asked curiously.

He shook his head and reached in his from pocket for the pen. Luke held it up and Lorelai couldn't help the image that popped in her head.

"Feeling like Charles Chaplin over there?"

Luke just shrugged confused and kept staring at her.

"You know, Modern Times: That old, black and white movie with no lines."

"Since when do you watch mute movies?

"Since I had a daughter on 5th grade. I was trying to do the whole active-mom thing so I watched it with Rory."

"I feel like there's a 'but' coming next."

"Well, not exactly a 'but'. She did kick me out like 30 minutes through the movie."

Luke sighed and asked in a knowing voice: "what did you do?"

"I may or may not have filled the blanks with dialogues of my own. Most of which with really weird voices and accents."

"You can't fake any accents."

"Which I didn't know until that point."

"Wait, what does any of that have to do with me giving you a pen?"

"It doesn't." Lorelai said simply.

"You wanna elaborate?"

"It wasn't the giving of the pen so much as the holding _of the pen_."

"Let's try this again."

"You held the pen like it was a frying pan." Lorelai said as if it was the obvious answer.

"Okay, that's it. We gotta get out of here." He said with a decisive nod and wave of his arm.


	3. Chapter Three - Ode to the worms!

Hello, dudes!

This chapter is shorter than I wanted, but it was all my time allowed me to do.

Thank you very much to all of you who are sticking around and reviewing.

Nancy and Chloe, thank you for the lovely reviews (I'm sorry I couldn't answer them personally, but, you know, guest reviews).

Anyways, here is chapter three. See you on the other side (aka the end of the page)

PS: Contains spoilers for Lost season 5.

 **Chapter Three – Ode to the worms!**

 _Previously..._

" _It wasn't the giving of the pen so much as the holding of the pen."_

" _Let's try this again."_

" _You held the pen like it was a frying pan." Lorelai said as if it was the obvious answer._

" _Okay, that's it. We gotta get out of here." He said with a decisive nod and wave of his arm._

Before Luke could decide on any action, they heard a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" Lorelai asked.

"It's TJ. And Liz." They heard from the other side.

"Never thought I'd be so glad to be locked in a room." Luke said and stretched on a chair.

"Hush you." Lorelai said. "I wish I could tell you to just come in, but we're kind of under lockdown here in case you didn't know."

"We know all about it! Patty filled us in." Liz said and slapped TJ in the arm. "I told you we should have asked for the key."

"Did she say Patty?" Luke asked confused.

Lorelai, just as confused, shrugged and shook her head negatively.

A couple minutes later, Lorelai and Luke heard Michel talking in the other side sounding annoyed, as usual. The door opened and TJ entered with Liz and little Doula on a stroller.

"Hey, bro!" Liz said and hugged Luke.

"Hey, Liz. TJ." He said hugging her back.

Lorelai quickly reached for Doula and started to play with the baby.

"Aren't you all big and grown up?" She said in a baby-voice.

"So, how have you guys been?" Lorelai asked Liz. "I haven't seen you in ages."

"I know." Liz agreed excitedly. "We've been good. I completely forgot what was like to have a baby on my hands. I mean, I think I spent way too much time high when Jess was this size."

"Liz!" Luke said in a warning tone. "Don't say that in front of her."

"Why not? Lorelai grew up in the 70s. She knows what it was like back then."

"I'm not talking about Lorelai." Luke hissed. "I mean Doula."

"She is not gonna remember that, Luke." Liz said dismissing Luke with a wave of her hand.

Luke raised his hands in surrender and the room fell into a silence.

"Okay, let's get this party started." TJ said and rubbed his hands together.

"Yeah. Liz, earlier, when you guys knocked, did you say Patty told you about us?" Lorelai asked and chuckled uncomfortably.

"She did. She called us just after the town meeting." Liz explained.

"Town meeting?" Luke asked confused.

"Jackson called a town meeting to talk about you two and we ended up with the first shift." TJ added.

"Shift?" Luke and Lorelai asked in unison.

"Well, you know, each one of us has got a time scheduled to come down here and talk to you." Liz said excited.

"Us? Who's us?" Luke asked annoyed.

"The town, of course!" Liz said confused. "Didn't Sookie tell you this was a thing?"

"What do you think?" Luke said annoyed.

"I can't believe her." Lorelai said in disbelief.

"She is your friend." Luke hissed.

"I know that." Lorelai said angrily.

"See? I told you this was a bad idea." TJ whispered to Liz.

"Hush you, TJ. I told you, this is just a case of a bad wormhole."

"What the hell is she talking about?" Luke asked.

"Well, she is _your_ sister." Lorelai answered with a roll of her eyes.

"There's no way you guys can get back together. You're just not a good fit." TJ said motioning between Lorelai and Luke.

They looked at each other and felt a sting of pain showing in their eyes. Liz noticed the sadness going through them and decided to intervene.

"Listen up, you guys just need to find the right wormhole between the dimensions. You two are in two different space-time continuums. Luke, you're on a plane over here, and she's on this plane over there, and you were both never here nor there at the same time." Liz calmly explained putting her hands as far from each other as possible. She looked at both Lorelai and Luke and saw blank expression's on their faces.

"Let's try this again. Have you guys seen Lost?" She started to say, but interrupted herself. "Who am I kidding? Of course Lorelai has. Luke, what about you?"

Luke looked at his sister in confusion and just shook his head negatively.

"He has. It's the one with the island. You kept saying you wanted to send Taylor there, then I'd say it was too mean – even for you – and you'd say that I kept calling Rory to tell her I was scared of the smoke coming out of your truck because it was just too black and you'd roll your eyes and it was the end of it." Lorelai explained.

"Oh yeah. I remember." He agreed and chuckled at the memory.

Liz took a moment to see the happiness flashing their faces before continuing her explanation. "Anyways, during season 5, Kate, Jack, Hurley, Sun, Sayid, Ben and Frank go back to the island. Although they are all at the same place, they are not in the same time. I mean, Kate, Jack, Hurley and Sayid were in 1977 and the other were in the right time. Do you get what I'm saying?" She asked hopeful.

Lorelai looked at Luke as in a search for what to say, but he backed away immediately. "Uhm, I don't really watch the show."

"Liz, I think I got it, but why don't you tell us anyway. More for Luke's benefit than for mine because, as I said, I totally got it." Lorelai said softly.

"Ugh, you two are really made for each other. What I'm trying to say is: wormhole or black smoke, just find your way back to each other. You two are soul mates for God's sake."

Lorelai's first instinct was to laugh, but the part of her who wanted Luke more than anything didn't allow her to do so. Luke sat down and kept his gaze on his hands – looking at Lorelai was just too painful.

"Look, I really don't think you guys should be together, but if Liz says she feels it, then it must be true. And her explanation makes a lot of sense – it's just like string theory when you think about it. You two are just being stupid. Luke, Lorelai is hot."

"TJ! C'mom, man! Liz is right there." Luke warned his brother in law closing his hand into a fist.

"Liz is hot, too. I'm serious. She is gorgeous and you're just sitting there being stupid."

"It's not that simple, okay?" Luke yelled.

"Lorelai." Liz started softly. "What happened, dear?"

"I, uh, we had a fight, Big one. _Huge,_ actually. It was a real show. There was a lot of screaming and I said… things. So did Luke, and I was sad and lonely then I went to..."

Lorelai started to explain, but before she could say anything about Chris, Luke interrupted. No matter how angry or hurt or upset he was, Luke would never want to put Lorelai on that position.

"Liz, it doesn't matter what happened. It is what it is." Luke said with a wave of his hand.

"That's not how these things work, big brother." Liz searched Lorelai's eyes for a sign of anything, but her gaze was directly to the ground.

"Yes, it is. We never belonged together in the first place. We tried, but it wasn't meant to be." Luke quickly glanced at Lorelai, but she was still staring at the floor. He swallowed hard, before adding in a chocked voice: "I'm not good enough for her."

Lorelai felt like her whole body had collapsed. A strange feeling went from the tip of her head all the way down to her toes. A single tear escaped from her left eye and a sob caught in her throat. But she didn't move an inch. After all those years, she still hadn't manage to convince Luke he was the only one for her. If she didn't have him, she would be alone forever. Her memory drifted away and landed on the first time Luke Danes voiced he wasn't good enough for Lorelai Gilmore.

 _Luke Danes' biological clock always woke him up at 6am. Before Lorelai, he would just get up and find something to do either in the apartment or at the diner. However, Lorelai taught him the art of remaining still until your body understood it should shut off again._

 _That morning, when Luke woke up though, he didn't try to sleep again. He looked around the bedroom and his eyes landed on the beautiful woman sleeping next to him. Lorelai's hair was all around her face and she had one foot hanging from the bed. He thought about changing her position so she would be a little more comfortable, but taking the chance of waking her up was just not worth it. Especially on a Sunday. So he just turned to his side and gazed Lorelai's sleeping figure, a huge smile on his face._

" _I can physically feel you staring at me." Lorelai said, her voice muffled by the pillow._

" _I like looking at you." Luke said with a shrug._

" _Staaaalkeeeer!" Lorelai said and pointed a finger at him accusingly._

" _Do you sleep with all of your stalkers?" Luke asked and ran his hand trough her hair._

" _Just the ones with exceptional good coffee." Lorelai answered rolling on top of him. Luke_ _started tracing a line on her face with his fingers, as if to memorize every inch._

" _Lorelai, I'm going to say something, but I don't wanna scare you or pressure you. Okay?" He asked softly. She furrowed her brows in confusion, but nodded her agreement anyway. Luke pecked her lips, then looked deeply into her blue eyes; so deep she was sure he could see her soul inside and out. He took a deep breath and said it, his voice the softest Lorelai had ever heard and the words, something that made her heart turn inside out._

" _I love you, Lorelai Gilmore."_

 _When she didn't say anything, he thought she was processing. And that was okay. He was sure he loved her and he wanted her to have the same certainty before saying anything. However, after a while, Luke started to get worried and all of his insecurities came to the surface. Ever since he met Lorelai, he saw her go from man to man and never get really stuck on anyone – unlike him, who pinned for her during almost eight years. She was always the one who broke hearts, but never allowed anyone to get close enough to break hers. Deep down, Luke always feared he didn't deserve Lorelai and sometimes, those feelings took the best of him._

" _I'm sorry." Luke said and looked away. "I shouldn't have said it. I mean, it was just too good to be true. Maybe if we had started this sooner. But I was too stubborn. We've haven't been together very long. It's too soon._ _And now you're looking at me like I'm crazy and there is my answer. You're not saying anything. I'm gonna go, I'm sorry. I'm not good enough for you." Luke gently pushed Lorelai off of him and got up to look for his clothes. Lorelai blinked a few times to be sure she was actually awake and shook her head just in case she was still dreaming. Then, she looked at Luke dressing up and muttered an annoyed "unbelievable" before getting up and poking him on the shoulder. He didn't say anything, but Lorelai wasn't about to let the man she loved walk out just like that._

" _You know what? You are right. You are stubborn and_ _crazy and I am stupid… But not for the reasons you just said. You are stubborn for getting this idea stuck in your head. You are crazy for just deciding to up and leave after one of your rants and before even listening to my side. But, most of all, I am stupid because I didn't say sooner that I feel the same way. I love you, Luke Danes. I. Love. You." He finally stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her. "You do?" He asked hopeful._

" _I do, Luke."_

" _You're not stupid."_

" _And you are more than enough for me. If there is someone not enough here, it's me. But I won't give you time to get into that discussion just now." He pulled her in for a hug and they stayed like that for a few moments. "So, what are you waiting for?" Lorelai asked breaking the silence._

" _What do you mean?" Luke asked confused._

" _We just settled the who-loves-who-more debate, I'm naked in bed and you, mister, have an absurd amount of clothes on." Luke chuckled and started to remove his clothes again._

" _Luke?"_

" _Yes?"_

" _Promise me something."_

" _Anything."_

" _Don't ever say that again, okay?"_

" _Never." He said and sealed it with a long, sweet kiss._

"You broke your promise." Lorelai said, slowly lifting her head, only to show the tears starting to fill her beautiful blue eyes. Luke shook his head sadly and said: "I didn't. It stopped being true."

"No, it didn't." Lorelai tried to protest.

"I'm sorry, but I don't believe you."

"You're being stubborn again. And crazy."

"Was I crazy when you ran out one me and..." Luke trailed off, suddenly remembering they weren't alone in the room. Liz and TJ kept looking from Luke to Lorelai, as if they were watching a ping pong match – a _really_ bad ping pong match.

"Yes, I ran away, Luke. Imagine how much it hurt to hear you say 'no' to my proposal."

"That was not a proposal, that was an ultimatum. And I don't remember my first 'yes' being invalid."

"It stopped being worth anything the moment you postponed our wedding." She said pointing her finger at him.

"I thought we had that discussion already." Luke barked back at her.

"We did. But I don't think it got through that thick head of yours." Lorelai yelled.

"Of course, it didn't. I keep telling him he shouldn't wear that damn cap all the time." TJ commented. Liz smirked, but quickly recovered and slapped her husband. "Shut up, TJ. They're having a thing."

"Speaking of the cap… Luke, what happened with the blue one? It was way better than that black. The blue one matches your eyes." TJ said nodding his head and then looking at Liz for approval.

"I agree with him, bro. The blue looked way better on you."

Luke sighed. The blue cap he had worn during six long years.

 _He didn't take it off when Rachel came back. He didn't take it off when she got engaged to Max. He didn't take it off after their fight because of Rory and Jess' car accident. He definitely didn't take it off because of Fish Guy. He didn't take it off because of Nicole. He didn't take it off the first time they broke up (mostly because he didn't even know they were broken up until that very scary message she left on his answering machine). But when she told him she slept with him, it was a no brainier: Luke had to remove every part of her from his life, or he wouldn't make it._

 _As soon as he got back from punching Chris, he unpacked the truck and started the project "Lorelai-less life". First, the TV was off the bedroom, all the chocolate went back to the diner, Paul Anka's leashes were shoved into the closet along with CD's, some clothes and beauty products. However, when it came to the cap, he couldn't bring himself to throw it away. The closet also didn't seem like a good option. After lots of thinking, he decided to put it in the store room. It made him remember of their talk about Rachel all those years ago, and all the times she ushered him in there with some lame excuse just to make out near cans of pickles. At first, he was totally against and called her crazy, but when Lorelai pointed out it would drive Taylor crazy (even though he would probably never know about it), he even suggested the idea a few times._

 _When the cap issue was resolved Luke thought it'd be easier to start putting the pieces (of his heart) back together. But he was wrong again. The moment he laid eyes in his wallet, the stabbing pain came back. The horoscope. No, that was just too much. At least for now. Luke decided to leave it there, at least for the time being. Maybe in a day or two he would decide what to do with it._

"I lost it." Luke said in a low voice, almost a whisper.

"What?" Liz asked.

"The blue cap. I lost it."

"How does one lose a cap?" TJ asked in disbelief. "Maybe a sock or even a shirt. But a cap? You never take it off."

"Well, I took it off and then I lost it. Can we just drop it?" Luke asked irritated.

Doula started crying and after two songs and lots of walking around holding her didn't have any effect. Liz and TJ really wanted to stick around longer, but their daughter didn't share their opinion. After establishing that the only thing capable of calming her down was a toy forgotten back at the house, Liz thought it was better if they just left before Doula got any worse. They quickly said goodbye and apologized for leaving so abruptly.

As soon as Liz and TJ closed the door behind them, the room felt into the most uncomfortable silence in the history of uncomfortable silences.

"Why do you need a pen?" Luke asked after a couple minutes.

"What?" Lorelai asked.

"Before Liz an TJ came by, you asked me for a pen." Luke stated motioning to the forgotten object sitting on the table.

"Oh, yes, the pen. I want to do one of those jail things."

"What jail things?"

"You know, people mark the days they've been incarcerated by making scratches on the wall."

"You're overreacting."

"Do you really think so?" She asked challengingly.

"How long has it been?" Luke asked, more to himself than to Lorelai.

"Honestly? No idea. Too long if you ask me."

"Too long, indeed." He agreed, and let out a sigh.

"It kind of reminds me of that little trip we took that time, remember?" Lorelai asked Luke with a big smile on her face.

"Just after we finished the renovations, right?" He said happily.

"Yeah. You were so done with TJ around the house all the time, then I joked we should just get away for a weekend and you were actually down with the idea." She said and moved to lay on the bed.

"And we went to that awful B&B just outside of New York and it rained the whole two days."

"And we pretty much couldn't leave the room because of those crazy people wanting to make a trivia night."

"Ugh, don't even remind me of them." Lorelai said and made a disgusted face. "The most annoying people ever. Luke laid down next to Lorelai and, without even noticing, they reached for each other's hands and intertwined their fingers.

They didn't look at each other. They didn't move. They just stood still and it was like the world stopped for them. It may have been a few seconds, a few minutes or even a few hours before their bubble was burst.

"Luke and Lorelai." Kirk's voice came from outside the room and they heard three consecutive knocks. "Luke and Lorelai" He said and knocked again. "Luke and Lorelai" He said and knocked for the third time.

Completely startled, they practically jumped away from each other. Lorelai ran to the bathroom and closed the door behind her. She took deep breaths and washed her face, trying to recompose herself. Luke sighed and moved closer to the door.

"Yes, Kirk?" He asked annoyed.

"Can I come in?"

"If I say no, will you go away?"

Kirk didn't say anything, but Luke could swear he heard another man's voice.

"You're still there, Kirk?"

"Yes, I am. Luke, I'm sorry, but I can't just go away."

"Fine. Just come in."

Lorelai had her hand on the doorknob but jumped back when Luke shouted.

"Get out!"

"But you told me to come in," Kirk said confused.

"Not you, Kirk. You, I can handle. But _him_? Just get the hell out of here. Right now!"

Who would drive Luke so mad so fast? That's actually a pretty easy answer. Not exactly cliffhanger material.

Yes, I know Lost's season 5 was like in 2009, but I just thought it fitted so well with Liz's crazy theory.

And I tried to make a little TBBT joke with Kirk's knocking three times. Never mind that.

Hope you enjoyed. Looking forward to hear your thoughts.


	4. Chapter Four - You wanna bet?

Notes: First of all, I want to apologize for a _huge_ mistake I made in the last chapter which **PurryCat** and **Hanful Of Barbie** were kind enough to point it out to me. This story takes place somewhere during 7x02, so Doula wasn't even close to born yet. I guess it slipped my mind when I wrote it. Sorry – totally my bad.

 **Chapter Four – You wanna bet?**

 _Previously…_

 _Lorelai had her hand on the doorknob but jumped back when Luke shouted._

" _Get out!"_

" _But you told me to come in," Kirk said confused._

" _Not you, Kirk. You, I can handle. But him? Just get the hell out of here. Right now!"_

"No, no and no!" Luke kept shouting over and over again.

"Luke? What's going on?" Lorelai asked a little bit scared, coming out to check who's presence could infuriate her ex-fiancee so much. Her brows instantly un-furrowed when she landed her eyes on Kirk Gleason, Taylor Doose and the charts he was carrying.

It wasn't so much Taylor's presence as the charts he was carrying that threw both Luke and Lorelai off.

" _And there were charts, Rory!" Lorelai whined again._

" _Mom, we've been on the phone for two minutes and somehow you managed to spend ten talking about the stupid charts." Rory said annoyed._

" _Ugh, Rory, did Yale make you_ _deaf_ _? They actually took the time and printed charts with colorful graphics and stuff like that. I can't honestly remember any school project so elaborate."_

" _Maybe your dropped out before they started._ _"_ _Rory offered with a smirk._

" _I'm not talking about my school. I'm talking about that fancy Chilton of yours." Lorelai said as if it was obvious._

" _Okay._ _Did you talk to Luke about it?" Rory asked after a few silent seconds on the line._

" _About what?"_

" _Mom, please. The charts freaked you out."_

" _No, they didn't." Lorelai protested._

" _Oh really?"_

" _Fine. They did. I mean, you know I'm very good at screwing it up and usually it's okay, but now I'm dating Luke. I. Am. Dating. Luke. I have to do this the right way." She said worriedly._

" _Why don't you just call Taylor and ask for the charts?" Rory said softly._

" _You really think I should?"_

" _I really think it will make you feel better. And I also think you should talk to Luke about it. You know, the whole open communication and stuff." She assured her mother._

" _Yeah, I guess you're right. He did show me the_ _horoscope. I guess Yale is not that bad." Lorelai said with a smirk. "Thanks, hon. See you Friday."_

" _Bye mom. See you then."_

" _It's open!" Lorelai shouted from the couch._

" _Someday, I'm gonna make you lock this door." Luke said as he entered the Crap Shack._

" _Before or after you make me stop eating junk food?" She asked with a big grin._

" _You are just a lost cause, aren't you?" He said with a sigh._

" _That's just part of my charm. If I was just ordinary, you wouldn't love me just as much." Lorelai said batting her eyelashes at Luke._

" _So, in this scenario I just love you because you're crazy?" Luke asked crossing his arms._

" _No, silly. In every scenario you love me anyways." She said patting his hand._

" _Sure. That makes much more sense." He said sarcastically._

" _Hey!" Lorelai exclaimed playfully swatting his arm._

 _Luke looked around and furrowed his brows at the sight in front of him._

" _What's all that?" Luke asked pointing towards the coffee table._

" _Remember the town meeting?" Lorelai said in a low voice._

" _Are those the charts?" He asked incredulously._

" _Luke, I know we just started this thing here." She said motioning between the two of them. "But, as you know, I have a tendency to flee or to screw up or to do both and I really like what we have going on here and…"_

" _Lorelai." Luke interrupted her softly. "You're blubbering. Just talk. You can tell me anything."_

" _On our first date you told me you were all in and I got scared. Not because I have doubts, but because I don't want to hurt you. During that town meeting, although I was fully enjoying you shouting at Taylor and the whole town about our relationship I also couldn't help but imagine whether or not they had a point."_

 _Luke chuckled and earned a glare from Lorelai. "I'm sorry, I don't think that's funny. At all. I really don't. But do you realize you're basing your worries in the beliefs of the citizen of Stars Hollow? In case you have forgotten, they're insane."_

" _Really? So, you're also insane?"She asked with mock-horror._

 _He rolled his eyes at her before answering: "It's a possibility._ _I'm also a little scared, but I want to deal with it and keep going. I love you, Lorelai Gilmore."_

" _Good, because I'm not letting you out that easily. I love you too, Lucas Danes."_

" _Don't call me that." He warned her._

" _Okay. From now on it's just Lucas. Or Burger Boy. But no more Danes." She assured him._

" _Lorelai." He warned her._

" _Uh, bossy. I like it." She said with an awkward wink._

 _Luke laughed and pointed to his lips. Lorelai nodded and whispered "you don't have to tell me twice" before connecting their lips for a long and sweet kiss._

 _Lane left the diner with the deliveries and started running when she heard the crashing sounds coming from the diner._

" _I just need ten minutes." She muttered to herself before crashing into Taylor._

" _Watch your step, young lady. This is not a marathon." He warned her._

" _I'm sorry, Taylor. It's just that Luke is in a bit of a mood."_

" _I've heard about that. I will try and go easy on him." Taylor commented._

" _Try and go easy?" She said confused. "Please tell me you're not going in the diner." She said holding his arm tightly._

" _I have business to discuss with him."_

" _Just promise not to mention the ribbons." Lane shouted, but it was too late: Taylor was already jingling the bells above the diner's door._

 _Luke didn't even bother to look up – that was not Lorelai, so it didn't make any difference._

" _Hello, Luke." Taylor said taking a place at the counter. "Could I have a cup of coffee and an omelet, please? And, also, if you have a minute to spare, I really need to talk to you."_

 _Taylor had his gaze on the special's board, so he didn't notice the craziness taking over Luke's eyes and turning them a scary shade of red. Luke poured a cup and pushed it to the market's owner, almost sending it to the floor instead._

" _So, Luke, when are you moving?" Taylor asked taking a sip of his coffee and pushing it aside due to the awful taste._

" _I'm sorry, what did you say?" Luke hissed._

" _I wanna know how long are you going to keep Luke's open." He calmly explained._

 _Luke looked at the coffee pot in his right hand and then at a certain spot in Taylor's head. He seemed to consider what to do next for a moment and shook his head deciding against the idea._

" _We can always check with Lorelai. I mean, she hasn't lived here as long as you and with her daughter off to college, technically there's nothing holding her in town anymore."_

 _That was all it took for Luke to lose it. The few townies who dared to stay kept their gazes to their foods and didn't look any other way. Silence fell over the diner – until the sound of the coffee pot crashing into the ground took over._

" _Luke, I think you should clean that up before it makes a mess." Taylor suggested._

" _Get. Out." Luke said pointing at the door._

" _I will not leave until I've had my omelet and we finish this discussion." Taylor argued crossing his arms. "After all, you gave me your word that…"_

" _I'm gonna give you a choice: you either get out now or the next pot crashes on the top of your head." Luke said through clenched teeth._

" _Good morning, Taylor." Luke said in an overly happy voice._

" _Morning, Luke." Taylor said mesmerized at the diner's owner tone. "What can I do for you?"_

" _I would like to buy another box of Zima. In fact, give me all the Zima you have in this store."_

" _Very well. Just let me see your driver's license or some form of ID."_

" _Usually I'd be very annoyed by that stupid statement." Luke said reaching for his wallet. "However, there's nothing you can say to ruin this day to me. Here it is." He said and pushed his document over._

 _After feeling satisfied for staring at Luke's ID for a few seconds, he moved to the back in order to search for the beverage._

" _You know, Luke, I actually didn't believe you were gonna propose."_

" _I didn't. Lorelai did."_

" _Oh." He said surprised. "Well, just remember the moving agreement is still on."_

" _Taylor, you can have my word that if Lorelai and I don't get married, I will close Luke's. In fact, you can have that whole building and make ten more of your stupid stores." Luke said._

" _Would you care to_ _shake on it?" Taylor asked extending his hand._

 _Luke considered it for a moment, but he was so happy he went against his own better judgment._

" _Ah, what the hell." Luke said shrugging and offering Taylor his hand._

 _Lorelai entered the market and immediately reached for her purse in search of a "to buy list"._

" _Damn it." She muttered to herself. "I could have sworn I put that thing here this morning."_

" _Evening, Lorelai."_

" _Hey Taylor." She said and stuffed her head back on her purse._

" _Can I help you with anything?" He questioned the inn owner._

" _Unless you can find my shopping list, I don't think so." She answered throwing papers around._

" _So, are you going to buy anything?" He asked looking her up and down, as if she was a stranger who maybe was about to shoplift. Lorelai figured he wouldn't stop the staring until she did some actual shopping, so she just moved to the aisles._

" _Uhm, Pop Tarts cause you can never have too many." She said throwing two boxes into her cart._

" _Taylor, that's the only brand you have?" Lorelai shouted from the beer aisles._

" _You and your fiancee sure like your alcohol." Taylor commented while checking his stock._

" _What's that supposed to mean?" She asked confused._

" _Luke came in here this morning and bought all the Zima from the store. All of it." Taylor said scandalized._

 _Lorelai chuckled and whispered "God, I love that man so damn much" before turning her attention back to Taylor. "I see. Yeah, we're talking about rehab after the honeymoon." She added seriously. "So, you have any other booze or not?"_

 _Taylor seemed to consider for a moment, but gave in and handed the beer to Lorelai._

" _You know that Luke is moving, right?"_

" _I'm sorry?" Lorelai said with a snort._

" _If you guys break up again, he said he would move." Taylor explained._

" _I'm sure he did." She said sarcastically._

" _It's true. He even shook hands on it." He said defensively._

" _My Luke Danes? If you say so, why not? Let's make this more fun: if Luke and I break up, I will sell my house and my share of the Dragonfly." Lorelai suggested with a smirk._

" _Care to shake on it?" Taylor asked._

" _I'm not shaking anything. Have a good night, Taylor." Lorelai handed Taylor a few bills and left with her boxes of Pop Tarts and the cases of Luke's favorite beer._

"No way." She said crossing her arms over her chest.

"That's exactly what I'm trying to say." Luke added frantically waving his arms towards the two men.

"I'm standing right here and I can hear you both talking. Now, Lorelai, is that how this establishment greets its guests?" Taylor asked in surprise.

"Taylor, you're not a guest." Luke said though clenched teeth. "You are a pain in the…"

"Okay, let's not get nasty just yet." Lorelai interrupted, gently patting Luke on the shoulder.

"Fine." He barked in response.

"Kirk, Taylor, I'm imagining the two of you are here for the next shift." Lorelai guessed using air quotes at the last word.

"Exactly. We are going to follow a schedule made by Jackson, Sookie and Rory until the two of you get back together or…" Kirk started to say, but trailed off and started looking at Taylor to seek confirmation on whether or not he should finish the sentence. The Soda Shoppe's owner just shrugged, so Kirk took a deep breath and swallowed hard while making his decision.

"Or what, Kirk?" Luke asked defiantly.

Kirk sighed, looked around the room and answered in a low tone: "Or _kill_ each other."

Lorelai and Luke just shook their heads in disbelief.

Taylor Doose was a man of business, so when it came to making decisions, he was always the first in line. But when it was time to take responsibility, not so much. This was one of those situations in which the law could be used in his favor, so the market's owner had no doubt about his next words.

"Luke, not too long ago you gave me your word that in case of a break up, you would close the diner and move."

"Now, wait a minute there, Taylor." Lorelai started to protest, but she was cut off by Luke's loud laughter.

"I'm sorry, young man. Did I say something funny?" Taylor said in a serious tone.

"I'm just wondering if my middle fingers made it to that record." Luke answered with a grin on his face.

Taylor put his glasses on and started going through a briefcase full of papers he had brought along. Lorelai was curious to find out what exactly Taylor's papers had to do with her relationship with Luke and Luke just wanted that whole thing to be over already.

"Would you mind sitting down? I think business are better conducted like that." Taylor said in a serious tone.

Luke and Lorelai sat down and crossed their hands over the table. Taylor pushed a pile of papers to each of them. They both looked in confusion – first, at the paper, and then, at each other. Taylor motioned with his hand for them to read before saying anything and immediately got up to check on Kirk, who seemed to be entangled with one of the curtains.

"Kirk, what are you doing?"

"You see, Taylor, the night of the test run, I stayed on the room just next to this one and now I'm noticing they look very similar not only from outside, but on the inside as well."

"Okay." Taylor nodded already regretting his next question. "And what's wrong with that?"

"Wrong? Oh, nothing is wrong with that. In that same night I ran out of the inn naked due to one of my night terrors. But the funny thing is they usually involve ninjas and assassins."

"How is that funny?" Luke hissed to Lorelai and earned a big laugh.

"I had a dream inside my dream."

"How is that possible, Kirk?" Taylor asked annoyed.

"I dreamed I saw Luke and Lorelai kissing on the porch, which doesn't make any sense. I mean, why would I dream about them?

Luke and Lorelai stopped and looked at each other, then at Kirk. All those years and only Rory and Sookie knew about that kiss. _And what a great kiss! Frog turning to Prince thesis still apply_ , Lorelai thought to herself while pretending to read the document in her hands. _When she kissed me back, I felt my legs tremble. I almost fell to the ground_ , Luke thought to himself while pretending to read the documents in his hands. Lorelai quickly glanced at Luke and a smile formed on her lips at the memory. Just as she looked down, Luke looked up and licked his lips remembering how good it was to taste Lorelai Gilmore. But, just as quickly, he looked down again as well.

"Kirk, and what does that have to do with the curtains?"

"Nothing, I hope. They are very similar to the ones Mother has in the house."

Taylor threw his hand on the air in exasperation and came back to the table.

"I imagine you two have had enough time to read the document?"

They silently nodded – even though neither of them read a word – and Taylor placed a pen in the space between them.

"So? What's the verdict?" Taylor asked excited.

Lorelai and Luke didn't even have time to think or say anything because Taylor interrupted to add a few more words. "Luke, I know my offer wasn't very high, but I thought we could take our agreement into consideration. And Lorelai, I didn't put an offer because I know you're not the only owner of the Dragonfly, so I would feel better if I talked to my lawyer first. You remember the firm, don't you, Luke?"

Luke looked up and begged with his eyes for Taylor not to say her name, but it went completely unnoticed by the town's selectman. "Nicole's firm. The red-headed. You were married to her. Very nice woman."

Luke rolled his eyes and Lorelai snorted, muttering "yeah, what a peach" under her breath.

"I'm sorry, what did you say, Lorelai?"

"Who? Me? Nothing, Taylor. She was a _very_ lovely woman." Lorelai said with a big fake smile and a shot of sarcasm.

"Anyways, I can give you guys a few more hours to decide if you want!"

"Taylor, why don't you just give us the highlights?" Lorelai suggested fighting back the urge to to throw the charts (and Taylor) out the window.

"Sure, of course. One can never be too careful when it comes to business transactions." He immediately agreed. "Luke said he would move in case of a break up. However, you, Lorelai, said the same thing so I thought it'd be best if you could decide for yourselves."

"What the hell are you talking about, Taylor?" Luke asked.

"Well, Luke's has been in town way longer than Lorelai. However, the Dragonfly precedes both. We also have to take into consideration that you own not only Luke's, but that whole building and the one next door. Lorelai has half the Dragonfly and her house – which _both_ of you renovated, so we would need to look into that."

"Get to the point, Taylor?" Lorelai asked with a chuckle.

"Financially speaking, either one of you could move and Stars Hollow would manage." He explained calmly.

"Is that what this is about?" Luke asked and got up, his anger building inside of him, "I'm. Not. Moving. And neither is she." He said and jerked his thumb in her direction. "Unless she wants to, of course."

"I don't want to move." She said decisively – and almost defensive.

"Then it's settled: no one is moving." Luke said with a definitive nod.

"And no one is buying no one else's house, building or half-business." Lorelai added with a nod of her own.

"But Luke, you said you would move. It's on the record."

"Taylor, if you mention this record one more time I'm gonna shove it…" Luke started to say, but was interrupted by Kirk.

"Hey, what about the bet?"

"What bet?" Lorelai asked.

"We made a new bet on how long it would take before you get back together." He informed them. "Miss Patty is keeping the money in a jar at the studio."

"Just out of curiosity, how much money are we talking?" Lorelai asked.

"That doesn't matter. No one is going to win, anyways. We should just go back to business." Taylor said and tried to get Luke and Lorelai's attention back to what (he thought) was the most important.

"Why no one is going to win?" Luke asked.

"I don't know. I actually think I have a pretty good shot." Kirk said pensively.

"Isn't that obvious? You two are too stubborn to get back together. Do you even like him, Lorelai?"

"Of course I do!" Lorelai snapped. "I love him, but it isn't that simple." She added trying to calm down and keep the flush out of her cheeks.

"You do?" Luke asked. He was surprised at her statement, so he covered it with a smirk. "Because from where I'm standing things look a little blurrier."

"Then I suggest you get a new pair of glasses." She shot at him.

"I don't wear glasses." He said calmly.

"See? That's what I'm talking about." Taylor said. "You just fight all the time."

"Shut up, Taylor." They both shouted at the same time.

"But Taylor!" Kirk insisted. "Rory made very clear that we should try to get them back together, not support them being apart."

"Kirk, why are you so interested in us getting beck together?" Luke asked motioning between him and Lorelai.

"Well, you are made for each other and Lulu says…"

"Try again, Kirk." Lorelai said in a warning tone.

"I just really wanna win that bet, okay?"

"Seriously? You are going through all of this just for a few extra bucks?"

"Try a couple thousand." Taylor muttered under his breath.

"Unbelievable." Lorelai said shaking her head. "You know what? Out of here. Both of you. Right now."

"What did I do wrong?" Kirk asked worried.

"Nothing, Kirk. I just need some alone time."

"But Luke is staying." Kirk whined.

"Well, Kirk, Luke can't leave the room, can he?" Luke asked rolling his eyes.

Taylor reluctantly put his papers and charts away and moved to the door along with Kirk. They were about to head out, when Luke heard Kirk whisper "I feel like this is all my fault" with a sad nod of his head.

"What is, Kirk?" Luke asked with a heavy sigh, already regretting it.

"Your break up." He spilled it out after a _very_ dramatic (and even longer) pause.

"How could this possibly be your fault?" Lorelai asked.

"Well, when I asked you out..." Kirk started to explain.

"WAIT. He asked you out?" Luke asked using all his self control to not punch Kirk in the face, die of laughter and mock Lorelai forever (not necessarily in that order).

"As I was saying" he continued as if nothing had happened "If I had prepared myself you would have said yes, we'd be married by now and living in the Twikam house, and maybe expecting our fifth child. Of course that would be a problem for my relationship with Lulu, but I'm sure we could figure something out."

"Oh, Kirk, I'm sure that's very sweet in some disturbed level, but none of this was your fault." Lorelai said softly. "Right, Luke?"

"Well, when I really think about it..."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes and shot Luke a death glare.

"No, Kirk, this had nothing to do with you." Luke said after a long sigh.

Once again, Kirk and Taylor were on their way out when Luke stopped them. "Kirk, what did you mean earlier by 'new bet'?"

"We had a bet on when you and Lorelai would get together."

"I always thought Sookie and Rory were just kidding." Lorelai said.

"No, there was a bet. And before that, we made one on Luke and Rachel." Kirk explained.

"That was actually how the whole thing started." Taylor said. "The first time Rachel left was for college. Luke, obviously, stuck around Stars Hollow. First, because William was already sick and second, because he is Luke. They did the whole long-distance thing with her coming back whenever she could. Anyways, she graduated and came back here. It didn't last long because she booked a job. They promised to write each other and some of us actually thought it was going to work. She came back six months later and everything seemed like it was going to be just fine. William was a little better and the two love birds were together all the time. Word was that Luke was even going to propose." He paused for a moment and looked at Luke for confirmation – Lorelai anxiously looked as well.

"Not exactly true. I did think about proposing. I went to the jewelry store, but nothing felt right. She left again before I could figure anything out." Luke said with a shrug.

"I feel like I should say something nice and supportive now because I know this brings back a lot of very painful memories, but I also wanna ask: how the heck did they find all of that out?" Lorelai asked curiously.

"Anyways, I was just getting there. She left again and we started to bet on how long before she came back. The answer was two years. William had just died and the Hardware Store was closed." Taylor continued.

"That's when I thought about proposing." Luke intervened. "She came with the speech about the roots and the house and my dad had just died, Liz had left with Jess and I was alone. I sold the house, moved to my apartment and she showed up and made me hopeful." He said with his eyes starting to fight back some tears.

"But she left again, right?" Lorelai asked softly.

"Exactly." He agreed with a choked voice.

"She came back one more time just after Luke opened the diner, but we canceled that bet." Kirk said.

"Why would you do that?" Lorelai asked confused.

"Shortly before that time, you and Luke met. At first, no one really cared about you two, but when Kirk, Miss Patty and Andrew swore they saw you putting in your wallet a piece of paper she gave you, it was obvious something was bound to happen." Taylor said decisively.

"And that's when we made the first bet. Patty mentioned your encounter at the town meeting and Sookie joked it would take you at least ten years to be together." Kirk added. "Everybody wrote down their guesses and the money amount."

"And you kept that for eight years?" Luke asked incredulously.

Lorelai snorted _really_ loud and when Luke looked at her disapprovingly, she just said: "You are one to say, pining-boy. There is definitely something in the water in this town."

Luke pointed a finger at her and said: "I did _not_ pine and yes, something in the water, in the air, in the earth. This town is full of nut jobs."

"But we did change that bet." Taylor said looking up, trying to summon the memory.

"Do you people don't understand the concept of betting?" Lorelai asked to no one in particular.

Luke studied the two men for a moment before guessing: "You changed it after Rachel came back last time, right?"

"Precisely." Taylor agreed. "Everybody moved up their dates after she left."

"Moved up? Why?" Lorelai asked.

"She never left so fast." Luke explained.

"And what does that have to do with you and I?"

"She left because of you." Luke blurted out staring at his feet.

"But there was nothing going on." Lorelai protested.

"Do we need to have his conversation with those two here?" Luke asked with a sigh.

"Absolutely not." Lorelai said and opened the door, pushing both Kirk and Taylor out. They didn't even have time for saying goodbye or waving because Lorelai just shut the door the minute they stepped outside.

"Rory is gonna kill us." They heard Kirk say from the other side of the door. "I told you we should have started with the charts."

"Shut up, Kirk." Taylor said annoyed while descending the stairs.

"Is it my fault that Rachel left?" Lorelai asked with a hint of pain in her voice.

"It was not like that, Lorelai." Luke said softly. "She told me she knew I tried and she was happy for that but it was clear my heart wasn't in it. Rachel told me to not wait too long…"

"So, that night you went over to pick up Bert…"

"I was going to tell you…"

"But then Max showed up…" Lorelai whispered more to herself than to Luke.

" _Max_ showed up." Luke said, wincing at the teacher's name.

"Then I got engaged. And I made you go to the party. Oh my God, Luke. I'm so sorry. That was awful of me."

"That's okay."

"If it makes you feel any better, I only felt good when you showed up."

"It does. But it also makes me feel like an idiot. I really wanted you to have something nice for the wedding, but I sort of built that chuppah out of guilt." He looked down at his hands and took a deep breath before continuing. "You had no idea I had feelings for you and I treated you and your wedding-planning really badly when I should be encouraging it."

"That's okay." She said with a smile and patted his hand. "And after that?"

"What do you mean?" Luke asked confused.

"Well, there was Max, but then there wasn't. Why didn't you ask me out after that?"

Luke smirked and gave her a pointed look before answering: "Jess. And when things seemed to settle down we fought after the car accident."

"Our timing was always a little off." Lorelai offered with a sigh.

"But you could have said something too, you know?" Luke said narrowing his eyes at Lorelai.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know… I mean, sometimes I just thought you didn't even like me, while I, as you enjoy saying so much, was clearly _pining_."

"How was I supposed to know that? I never saw it." She said and, after a long pause, added: "Sookie and Rory may have told me about that a few times. But it''s not like I took it seriously."

"You didn't take your own daughter and you best friend seriously?" Luke snapped at her.

"Hey, no need for that." She shouted back. "After Sookie and Jackson started dating, I actually thought you were gonna ask me out. Next thing I know Mrs. Kim is dragging me out the diner to look for the girls. The next day, obviously, I gave you an opening, but all you managed to do was tell me we should play cards. _Cards_ , Luke. And it wasn't even the dirty kind of game."

"Dirty game of cards?" Luke asked raising his eyebrows.

"Oh, come on, Luke. You never played strip poker?"

"Not really." He said a little annoyed.

"Well, you should because it's really good." She informed him. After a few silent moments Lorelai started to frantically look around the drawers.

"What are you looking for now?" Luke asked with a roll of his eyes.

"A deck of cards, of course." She answered.

"We're playing poker?" Luke asked confused.

" _Strip_ poker." Lorelai said, throwing the bunch of cards on the coffee table with a loud thump.

"Just to clarify: you're still mad, right?" He asked.

"You're still mad, right?" She shot back.

"Let's do this!" Luke exclaimed.

"You are cheating." Lorelai said accusingly.

"That's the third time you've said that." Luke said with his eyes glued to his cards. A wave of lust consumed him entirely. Strip poker was enticing, way too tempting to say no.

"Because you are cheating." She argued, moisturizing her lips.

"For the third time I'll ask: how can you be so sure of that?" He asked incredulously.

"That's easy: I have nothing on, but underwear. You, however, still have everything on – except for the stupid black cap, which you took off _before_ we started." She said with a grin. This game proved to be beyond her liking.

"It's not my fault you're a bad player." He commented with a shrug.

"Take off your shirt." She ordered.

"Uhm, no?" Luke said.

"Yes, because I refuse to play with people who cheat." She said crossing her arms over her chest and it took Luke a lot of strength not to stare at her lace bra – or what he knew it was covering.

"Fine!" Luke removed his shirt and Lorelai licked her lips at the sight of his bare chest.

"You know what… let's not play this anymore." Lorelai said with a definitive nod.

"Okay. We don't have to." Luke suggested. "We can just play the normal way."

"That's not what I want either," Lorelai blurted out.

"So, what do you want Lorelai?" He asked genuinely confused.

"Us. Bed. Now." She blurted out before realizing what she just said.

Luke opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. His limbs were completely numb, his eyebrows shooting up in vehement shock.

"Do you not want me?" Lorelai asked when he didn't say anything.

Luke knew now it was not the time for words. He started removing the rest of his clothes and took a step towards Lorelai. She stood still, so he took two more steps and locked their lips together. Even the slightest caress aroused her entire body, pleasure coming in high waves. She put her hand on his neck, holding them together. They started to walk backwards until they hit the bed, never once breaking the kiss. Lorelai gently pushed Luke down and he looked at her, in order to be sure she was sure. It was a stare of raw passion, wildness erupting from their movements. Nothing could stop them. No words were exchanged. She nodded and removed her bra. Luke took the hint and pulled her to him. Goosebumps arose on both of their skins, the rhythm dragging them in a haze, their bodied coming together.

"That was certainty exhausting." Luke said.

"The good kind or the bad kind?" Lorelai asked with a grin.

"The _best_ kind." He whispered into her ear. "So, do you think we should do this?"

" _Again_?" Lorelai asked raising her eyebrows.

"I didn't mean _that…_ but yeah, we could do that again." Luke said with a smirk. "I mean you and I. You think we have a chance?"

"I sure hope so. But we have a lot to discuss before getting there." She reminded him.

"I know. It's gonna be a tough and long road. Totally worth it though. Right?" Luke asked a little unsure.

Lorelai nodded in agreement, also unsure, and sighed. "So, do you wanna bet on who's coming next?"

Luke just chuckled and pulled her into his arms.

Notes: So _that_ happened, huh? I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts. Obviously I couldn't not mention that this amazing strip poker bit was brought to you as a courtesy from the amazing **Foxes' Dreams**. I'm terrible at that kind of stuff and she was a dear – as usual – and fixed it for me.

Anyone wants to bet on who's coming next? Here's a tip: we've got to groups.

1st: two women.

2nd: a woman and a man.


	5. Chapter Five - It's all in the eyes

**Notes:** A _huge_ shout out to my guest reviewers. Thank you so much for taking the time, you guys and I'm sorry I can't personally answer.

 **Chapter Five – It's all in the eyes**

 _Previously..._

" _That was certainty exhausting." Luke said._

" _The good kind or the bad kind?" Lorelai asked with a grin._

" _The best kind." He whispered into her ear. "So, do you think we should do this?"_

" _Again?" Lorelai asked raising her eyebrows._

" _I didn't mean that… but yeah, we could do that again." Luke said with a smirk. "I mean you and I. You think we have a chance?"_

" _I sure hope so. But we have a lot to discuss before getting there." She reminded him._

" _I know. It's gonna be a tough and long road. Totally worth it though. Right?" Luke asked a little unsure._

 _Lorelai nodded in agreement, also unsure, and sighed. "So, do you wanna bet on who's coming next?"_

 _Luke just chuckled and pulled her into his arms._

The two next didn't even have to come to the door to be identified. Babette's raspy voice and Miss Patty's scandalous laughter could be heard all the way from the lobby where the two women were making Michel very uncomfortable. The french man turned fifty shades of red before being able to reach for the key and finally send the women on their way.

"Crazy old broads." He muttered to himself while the two chatted their way to room (lucky) number seven.

"I think you should avoid corners and, especially, the bed." Lorelai suggested.

"What?" Luke asked confused.

"Babette and Miss Patty are coming up." Lorelai barely finished her sentence and Luke was already behind a chair, feet firmly planted on the ground.

"Do you think they'll know?" He asked with a tight grip on the chair.

"Know what?" Lorelai asked looking around the room.

"You know… That we did. _It_." Luke whispered.

"Luke, 'it' is nor a dirty word. 'Sex'? Maybe." She said arching an eyebrow.

"Hush you." He hissed at her. "They can hear you."

Lorelai didn't have time to say anything else because the steps got dangerously close to the door.

"Hey there, sugars!" Babette said. "We're coming in. Hope you two are descent."

Patty playfully nudged her friend before saying "no, we don't. The less, the better." Babette started laughing and Patty winked and opened the door.

Luke looked pleadingly at Lorelai, who just held up her hands in surrender.

The two ladies came in laughing and Luke's eyes almost jumped out at the sight in front of him: Founder's Day Punch. He swallowed hard and motioned to the container with his eyes. Lorelai also swallowed hard and muttered "oh boy" before going to greet the women.

"Babette, Miss Patty. How nice to see you. How's everything?"

"Oh Lorelai, dear, just cut the crap. What the hell happened?" Patty asked in a serious tone.

"You know… Life just happened and we couldn't make it work."

Patty looked at Luke and he nodded his agreement. "Exactly. Couldn't make it work." _We're talking about it, though. And that's a good sign, right?_

"See? I told you we should have told him." Babette said tugging on Patty's sleeve.

"Told me what?" Luke asked not taking his eyes off Lorelai.

"Patty, that doesn't matter now. We're over." Lorelai tried to plead, but was immediately cut off by Luke ('s curiosity).

"I wanna know."

"It's no big deal. I mean, maybe it would have made a difference, but probably not." Lorelai said and shrugged.

"Okay, you remember Lane's wedding, sugar?" Babette asked.

"Uh, yeah. I mean, I didn't go. I know Lorelai went with Christopher and everybody mentioned Lorelai had a bit too much to drink." Luke said clueless.

"Well, see, that's not exactly what happened, dear." Patty said softly, touching Luke's arm and motioning for him to sit. A sob caught in Lorelai's throat and she reached for the nearest wall for support.

Babette and Miss Patty sat directly in front of Luke and exchanged a look before blurting it all out.

"Lorelai did have a little too much to drink…" Patty started to say.

"McDreamy did say tequila was not my friend. I should have listened." Lorelai interjected with a weird chuckle.

"But she did more than just _sing_." Patty completed.

"Oh?" was all Luke managed to say.

"Rory gave this amazing speech and when she got off stage Lorelai took another shot and just got up declaring she wanted to give a toast as well."

"The moment she hit the stage, it was obvious it wouldn't be good. She bumped into all the band's stuff." Babette said with a sad shake of her head.

"Well, Lorelai was drunk and she is naturally klutzy." Luke said with a twitch of his lips.

* * *

" _Sorry, sorry." Lorelai kept saying again and again. "I tried to be really careful, but it just kind of slipped. Or maybe I did? I mean, you know that I'm usually careful, but…"_

 _Luke was about to let Lorelai keep rambling until she worn out, but he couldn't let that snort go._

" _Okay." She said carefully standing up, trying not to step in the glass scattered around her. "I am here apologizing for breaking half the cups of the diner and your response is to snort? Is that some kind of weird reverse psychology thing? Like, you try to play all cool and nice, but you're actually going to kill me in my sleep and the snort is just a way to throw me off so I think everything is fine and I die with a smile in my sleep and you can do a Psycho kind of thing and pretend to be me until you die? Is that what you're trying to do?"_

 _Lorelai paused to take a breath and Luke used the opportunity to put his question in: "are you finished?"_

 _She stubbornly crossed her arms over her chest and pretended to think it over for a second before answering "yes."_

" _First of all, I didn't get half of what you said. And please don't attempt to repeat it because I don't think I could ever understand it. I snorted because you're being crazy. You broke three cups, Lorelai. THREE. I assure you I own way more than six, so it's not even close to half. They were already old and chipped and that's why they were in that specific shelf. It was starting to get loose a couple of weeks ago and I made the mistake of checking it while TJ and Liz were here. Of course TJ suggested he could fix it for me – for a very low price, might I add – and Liz was just so excited I couldn't say no. I allowed that nut job to fix it – which obviously he didn't do well at all. Since I didn't have the time to actually fix it at the time, I moved my oldest cups to that shelf. It just slipped my mind to tell you."_

" _Are you serious, Luke? I know you've been keeping the diner as much alike the hardware store as possible and I hate that I broke a piece of it." Lorelai said worried._

" _I promise you didn't ruin anything." Luke said softly. "Just stay there and let me clean this up so you don't cut your feet."_

 _Lorelai just nodded and stood still waiting for Luke to come back with a broom._

" _I think I got it all." He reached for her hand and held it tightly on his. "But, just in case, take a little jump."_

 _Lorelai jumped and Luke had to steady her so she didn't fall on the ground._

" _Why are you barefoot, anyways?" Luke asked with his hands still on her hips._

" _I woke up and you weren't there. I smelled the coffee and just followed the scent all the way down here." She explained; a smile growing on her lips while her hands circled around his neck._

" _I see. I'm just glad you managed to put some cloths on first. Sorry I didn't leave a note. I thought you wouldn't wake up until I got back. I just had to buy a few things for dinner."_

" _Dinner? But I haven't had breakfast yet!" She said. "But, since you brought it up…" Lorelai started and stood on the tip of her toes in order to whisper in his ear: "you do realize the whole diner is staring at us, right?"_

 _Luke quickly looked around and noticed no one was talking, eating or even moving. He stared all of them down and shouted "nothing to see here" before walking backwards with Lorelai until they were both behind the curtains._

 _Lorelai was about to laugh, but Luke was quicker and filled her with kisses. The fact they managed to make all the way upstairs was truly impressive, especially considering most of their clothes ended up on the stairs._

" _What was that about?" Lorelai asked snuggling up to Luke._

" _Do I need a reason to just want to make love to my girlfriend?" Luke asked softly rubbing her arm._

" _Absolutely, not. But that was different. The diner is open, it's nearly 9am and there are actual people down there – who probably know exactly what we are doing up here."_

" _Do you really think they know exactly what just happened here?" Luke asked raising an eyebrow._

" _You are shameless." Lorelai said incredulously. "I just love it. And I love you!"_

" _I love you too." Luke said and pecked her lips. "I dunno. I came in and you were there looking perfect in my flannel and those cute shorts and no shoes on. Your hair looks and smells amazing and it's all messy and flawless at the same time… I'm just really happy, you know?"_

" _Yeah, I do." She said with a huge grin on her face._

* * *

"Yes, she is klutzy." Lorelai said. "But that was different."

"Do you wanna tell him, dear?" Patty gently asked.

"I don't think I can." She said shyly. "Just do it already."

"It's better to show him. Babette, give me the camera."

"You have it on tape?" Lorelai asked incredulously.

"Well, Lane and Zach managed to convince most of their friends to erase the videos on their phones. However, there was nothing to be done about the videographer." Babette placed the camera on Luke's hands and pressed play.

"Hello. Everybody, hello. Some of you know me as Lorelai Gilmore, and some of you know me as Cher. But either way, I wanted to say a few words about our girl. I have known Lane forever, and I'm just so incredibly happy that she has gotten married. I mean, I am just so happy that this adorable 22-year-old girl has gotten married, because it's amazing, you know? It's really hard to get married. Believe me, I should know. I mean, seriously, because Lane is married, and next thing, it'll be my daughter, and then my granddaughter, but not me. I'm not getting married. No, it ain't for me. It's not in the cards. But, hey, do you know what date I'm not getting married? June 3rd. Do not save the date. Do you hear me? Do whatever you want on June 3rd, because there's nothing at all happening on that day. If there's anything you need to book or anything, it's totally safe to book it on June 3rd. So, congratulations, Lane and Zach. Who else here had eight shots of Tequila? Anybody? Hands...no? Oh, my gosh, who misses the yummy bartenders? I know, me too. They were so great. I was gonna ask them to not work on June 3rd on my not wedding. I just thought that would be so fun."

Luke tried to swallow really hard, but a lump caught in his throat and just wouldn't go away. He felt his eyes stinging and closed them tight fighting the urge to let the tears fall.

"Thank God for the punch." Lorelai muttered to herself and walked over to the bowl to serve herself a cup. _Wow, surprisingly not strong enough._

"So, all this time the _whole_ town has been lying to me about the crazy stuff Lorelai did at the wedding?" Luke asked incredulously.

"Not exactly. After the toast, there was an audition for "America's Next Top Model", a limbo contest, a poker game and things only went south from there." Babette explained.

"Listen, Luke. At the time, I thought Lorelai was just stressed over the wedding planning and April. And since you were away… I mean, I just figured it'd be better if you didn't know anything. But now I can't help but wonder what would have happened if I just told you the truth." Patty said apologetically.

The three women fixed their eyes on Luke, who just stood still and didn't say a word. After a few moments, Babette got fed up and poked Luke. When he didn't move, she turned to Patty and asked: "what should we do now?"

"He'll come around." Lorelai said. "He just needs a little time to process. Luke is a slow thinker."

Patty snorted and muttered "don't we know it?" under her breath.

Luke looked up at Lorelai, his eyes filled with passion and said: "do _you_ think it'd have made any difference?"

"Honestly?"

"Yes, honestly. Do you think that if I had actually known what was going on we could have fixed this and avoided this whole mess?"

"I really don't know, Luke. I wish I could just say yes, but, in one hand, I think it might have helped you see how miserable I actually was; in the other hand, it could have pushed you away for good. So, _honestly_? I have no idea." Lorelai answered sincerely and shrugged. "What do you think?"

"I think you're right. I was looking at you, but I wasn't seeing you, Lorelai. I've always been so good at reading you, but then April came and I just… stopped. I couldn't see anything else. I thought that she was gonna like you better than me and I had no idea of how to be a parent, so I thought that keeping her from you until I had all figured out would do us any good. I thought that I had to prove myself as a parent, before moving on with our lives. I treated you and April as two different parts of my life when I should have united you two."

"You forgot you were already a parent." Lorelai said softly with a weak smile.

"Jess was already big when I got him. I didn't do that much for him." Luke said with a shrug.

"True. But you did help him out. _A lot._ But I wasn't talking about Jess." Lorelai tried to clarify.

He looked at Lorelai and cocked his head in confusion and Lorelai flashed him a bright smile and said: "I meant Rory."

Luke smiled and nodded his head. "She is never going to forget about the mashed potatoes or the caterpillar's funeral or all the times you built her more bookcases."

"And I definitely won't forget about my high school graduation." Rory added entering the room.

"Rory, nice to see you." Miss Patty greeted the young woman.

"I'm glad you two could make it."

"Oh, sugar, we wouldn't miss it for the world."

"You were wearing feathered angel's wings." Luke said with a huge grin in his face.

"What?" Miss Patty asked confused.

"Rory." Luke explained. "She was ten and she found this caterpillar which she decided to take care of. He had a name and everything. When he died, she was convinced it was her fault and burst into tears. Then…"

"Then, I suggested a funeral." Lorelai finished chuckling at the memory. "She got really excited and asked me if she could invite a few friends. We ended up going door-to-door. Most people just laughed, but not Luke."

"Luke assured me he would be there _and_ he brought food. He also helped with the digging of the hole part and brought a little wood box to serve as a coffin." Rory said happily. She sent a warm smile in his direction which was received with a Luke-y nod.

"And don't forget that awful day moving the mattress in and out of Yale." Lorelai said and burst out laughing causing everyone to turn their heads towards her. Rory looked at her disapprovingly and asked: "did you drink the punch, mom?"

"Maaaaaybe." Lorelai sang in an Oasis' Wonderwall style.

"That much, huh?"

Lorelai just shrugged and Luke rolled his eyes.

"So, I have two unexpected but very welcome guests down there looking forward to try and put some sense into those two." Rory said.

"But it's just starting to get interesting." Babette argued.

"Yeah, I can imagine. However, I think they have a really good chance." Rory explained.

"Your grandparents are here already?" Patty asked incredulously.

"Emily and Richard are coming? _Here_?" Lorelai asked terrified.

"Yes… Just not now."

Lorelai, Luke, Babette and Miss Patty furrowed their brows in confusion and looked at each other in search of answers. Before anyone could say anything Buddy came in followed by Maisy, who had an annoyed expression on her face.

The dance teacher chatted a little with Maisy and laughed over a few old stories. Babette and Rory said their goodbyes and left with Miss Patty.

Luke walked towards Maisy to give her a hug, but stopped when she put her hand up.

"What do you think you're doing, Lucas?"

"Well, I _was_ going to hug you. Now I'm not so sure."

She placed her hands in Luke's shoulders and, after giving them a squeeze, shook him a few times.

"Hey, easy there." Luke protested. "What's with the shaking?"

"I'm checking to see if everything is still on place." Maisy said as if it made all the sense in the world. She then knocked on his head as if it was a door and Lorelai started to laugh at the annoyance showing in Luke's eyes. "Don't laugh so hard, young lady. You're next."

"Next? What are you talking about?"

"Sit down. Both of you, knuckleheads." She said pointing at the table. "Last time I saw you two it was all heart eyes and making out on the booth. A couple of months later I hear you all of a sudden have a daughter – who I didn't meet, by the way – and the wedding was off. Next thing I know you're broken up. And you know what the worst part is? Neither of you had the decency of even calling me."

* * *

" _So, where are you taking me?" Rory asked starring out the window in search for a clue._

" _Just wait. We're almost there." Luke said annoyed._

" _Oh my God, the impatience this girl can have." Lorelai said with mock horror._

 _Luke snorted and added: "Right. I can't imagine who she got that from."_

" _What is that supposed to mean?" Lorelai asked pretending to be hurt._

" _Hum, hey, we're here." Luke said pointing ahead and changing the subject._

" _Sniffy's Tavern?" Rory asked curiously closing the truck's door behind her._

" _You're gonna love it, hon. I sure do." Lorelai said excited._

" _Luke, you know Maisy hates when we just sit ourselves." Lorelai warned him when Luke directed the Gilmore Girls to their booth._

" _I'm not just gonna stand there if I already have a table." He grumbled while removing his coat._

" _Lucas!" Maisy yelled at him. "How many times do I have to talk to you about just sitting yourself like that?"_

" _I keep telling him and he just ignores me, Maisy." Lorelai explained. "Great to see, you. This is Rory."_

" _Oh, nice to finally meet you. Luke talks about you almost as much as he talks about your mom here." Maisy told her._

" _I can imagine." Rory said with a laugh._

" _So, Rory how did you like the place?" Luke asked opening the truck door for her._

" _I'm sad." The young girl answered with puppy eyes._

" _Sad? What's wrong?" He asked worried._

 _She looked at him narrowing her eyes and said in a serious tone: "Sniffy died."_

" _Oh, not this again." Luke said annoyed._

" _I told you they should have edited that part." Lorelai said with a firm nod._

" _Enough with the Sniffy story. You know you didn't have to read the menu." He told them._

" _Now, how fun would that be?" Lorelai asked curiously._

" _Right? I mean, if they wrote it the least we can do is read it and appreciate it." Rory said decisively._

" _Fine." Luke said with a sigh. "Each of you gets one more comment about Sniffy and then we're done."_

" _Nah. I'm good." Lorelai said with a dismissive wave._

" _Yeah, me too." Rory agreed._

 _As soon as they got back to the house, Lorelai started to sigh non-stop._

" _What's wrong, Lorelai?" Luke asked already regretting it._

" _It's just that, how hard it would have been to edit a little, you know?" She explained._

" _No way." He said with his eyes turning red. "I gave both of you the chance to get it out of your systems and you didn't. Now it's too late."_

 _The girls started giggling and Luke got up._

" _That's it. I'm going to bed. You're two are crazy."_

 _He was halfway in the stairs when Rory called his name and he reluctantly turned to look at her._

" _What now?" Luke barked at the girl._

" _Thank you for taking me there tonight. I loved it." Rory said sheepishly._

 _Luke's expression softened and he flashed the girl a bright smile. "Anytime."_

* * *

The two of them looked down at their hands, feeling ashamed for neglecting Maisy and Buddy during the last few months.

"Maisy, I'm so sorry. We didn't mean to…" Lorelai started to say, but was cut off by Maisy.

"I'm not finished. I had to found out when Rory called me almost in tears begging us to check on Luke because he was _in a terrible shape_. Can you imagine how worried I was? I mean, what the hell happened?"

Until that very moment only Luke and Rory knew that the trigger to the break up was the fact Lorelai slept with Christopher and neither of them was planning on voicing that to anyone else. Lorelai, however, had different thoughts when it came to Maisy and Buddy.

"It was ugly and painful and the longest months of my life." Lorelai started to say, and stopped to take a deep breath and find the courage to continue. "I honestly don't know when it started. Sometimes I try to find a specific moment in time to which I can say: that's it! That's where our problems started. But I just can't. It's all so hard and confusing."

"I think it all started with Christopher." Luke stated crossing his hands over the table.

"Could you be more specific?" Lorelai asked with a roll of eyes.

"You had lunch with Christopher and told me later and I played it like it was no big deal – I even told you I didn't mind. That was a lie. I was not okay with that. I do understand and respect the fact he is always gonna be in your life but I'm never gonna like that. Then, during your parents' vow renewal thing there was that whole thing with Chris I just needed to get the hell out of there as fast as I could – and I ended up leaving you there in the process, sorry about that by the way. You know I'm a _really_ slow thinker. I need time to actually consider every single option before making any decisions. Unless I'm with you, I don't jump. I walk. Incredibly slow. Then, at the market, I told you I couldn't be in this relationship anymore, but I wasn't breaking up with you. You asked me what I was thinking at that moment and that was all my brain kept telling me. _You don't belong with her, Luke; she deserves way better than you. You're not good enough. Her parents hate you._ Next thing I know you're sobbing in my answering machine and calling me your ex boyfriend and the whole town is walking with ribbons and Gypsy is screaming at me during breakfast time for breaking your heart."

Lorelai chuckled softly and Luke looked at her in confusion. "Did Gypsy actually scream at you?"

"And she wasn't the only one. What you don't seem to realize Lorelai is that everybody in this town loves you very much. And the fact you're Rory's mom only makes it easier on people."

"Rory is pretty loveable. Especially when she does the puppy eyes."

Luke smiled at Lorelai and nodded once before continuing: "When we got back together, we didn't really talk much. We just picked up where we left off. Shortly after, Rory got arrested, dropped out of Yale, moved in with your parents and we got engaged. We renovated the house, but not once talked about a wedding. I mean, you did assure me more than once that you were only waiting for Rory and I was okay with that, but I kind of wished you had talked to me about it."

"I know. Me too. I was devastated and I didn't have the strength to do anything. I wanted to talk to you, but I was too afraid to break down in the process. I never told you about it, but one day I was driving back to Stars Hollow and I saw Rory."

"You saw her? I thought you only went to your parents to drop her stuff."

"I didn't see her at their house. I saw her picking up trash at the side of the road. It was awful."

"I'm sorry, Lorelai." Luke said sincerely. He looked at her broken expression remembering those awful months and gave her hand a squeeze. "Just before Rory came back, April strolled into the diner for the first time rambling about a science fair and before I could say anything she had grabbed a hair from my head and was out the door. I was planning on telling you when you came to the diner that night, but you were so happy about the whole June 3rd thing… I couldn't do that to you." Luke explained ashamed.

"What do you think I would have said? Out of everyone, you think I wouldn't understand? Pregnant at 15, high school drop out, single mother, ran away from home." Lorelai tried to reason with him.

"And yet you managed to raise one of the most amazing young women I have ever met. My kid didn't even know me for 12 years."

"Rory is special, she was an easy kid. And it wasn't your fault or choice that you didn't get to meet April. After that I think it was my fault. When I suggested we postpone the wedding and you agreed, I should have fought you on it and said that it wasn't at all what I wanted. I should have demanded to meet April." Lorelai said apologetically.

"I can't believe I didn't take the hint on that. You were miserable, Lorelai. For months. I should have introduced you to Anna and I shouldn't have accepted when she said she didn't want you near April." Luke said shaking his head in regret.

"If I had pushed you a little further… But I was afraid to scare you away from good." Lorelai said with a long sigh.

"I put you in an impossible position."

"And I let you do it."

"Oh my God. Enough with the pity party you two." Maisy said. "Look, there are a lot of would, could and should in this situation. However, regret is not gonna take you anywhere. Now, let's get real here: do you want to get back together?"

"Yes." They both answered in unison.

"Then do it already!"

"It's not that simple." Lorelai said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Why not?" Maisy asked confused. "Oh, I see. Something else happened." She looked between Luke and Lorelai but they weren't saying anything. " _Somebody_ else. Okay. Still not gonna tell me, huh? So, Luke, did you sleep with April's mom?"

"What? No! Never. I mean, not never… We did… Not since we broke up twelve years ago, though." He said uncomfortably.

"That leaves you, Lorelai. So, who was it? The teacher? The fishing guy? The Mercedes guy?"

"I'm sorry, how do you even know about them?"

"Lucas could only talk about you during eight straight years. He always had something to say about you or Rory. Not even Rachel got that much attention." Buddy explained.

"I see." Lorelai said narrowing her eyes at Luke. "So I _was_ right." She stated matter of factly.

"About what?" Luke asked confused.

"Don't you remember our first date? You admitted that you were pinning for me and that I was your Ava Gardner."

"That's not how it happened and you know it." Luke argued pointing a finger at her.

"Oh really? How do you _think_ it happened?" Lorelai asked challengingly.

"I explained to you that I never clean out my wallet and that's why the thing has been sitting there for almost ten years now. Then you were so happy thinking you are my Ava Gardner that I didn't wanna burst your bubble."

"Right." She said with a snort. "Keep telling yourself that."

"Stop changing the subject, Lorelai." Maisy warned her.

"Rory's dad." Lorelai blurted out.

"Has that happened before?"

"Sleeping with Chris? I mean, Rory is proof that..."

"Don't joke, Lorelai." Luke pleaded.

"Sorry. A few times over the years. Most of them followed by regret."

"I see. Have you talked to him since?" Maisy asked.

"He called and left a message at the house. I didn't pick up. I didn't call back."

Maisy looked at Luke and saw his eyes were shut. Obviously, that was a very painful conversation for him.

"Are you planning on it?"

"I wouldn't know what to say. I wanna go back." Lorelai said shaking her head.

"To when?"

"That's just the thing: I have no idea." Lorelai answered sniffing.

"I'm just gonna say one last thing and then Buddy and I are leaving. Pay attention because that's a big one: _If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs._ _Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth._ _It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres._ _Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part,_ _but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears._ _When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me._ _For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love._ "

"It's beautiful." Lorelai said. "Where is it from?"

"The bible." Luke answered.

"Huh, never knew you are a big bible guy." Lorelai said.

"I'm not." He said with a shrug. "It was what the minister read in my parents' wedding. On their wedding anniversary they would recite it to each other. Even when my mom was sick, they did it. After she died, every year my dad would visit her grave and recite it for her." Luke explained with tears in his eyes.

"1 Corinthians 13." Maisy explained. "Kathy wasn't a religious person either, but she loved that chapter." She put a comforting hand in Luke's shoulder and said: "your mother was a great woman. Keep making her proud, Lucas."

"You got it Maisy."

"And when you two finish this thing here, come by Sniffy's. Okay?" Buddy said waving at them from the door.

"Great to see you again, Buddy." Lorelai said waving back.

"Think about it, okay Lorelai?" She nodded in response and with that Maisy and Buddy left hoping Luke and Lorelai would manage to work out their problems.

"Have you done that after you dad died?" Lorelai asked softly after a few moments of silence.

"Done what?" Luke asked still a little shaken by the subject.

"Go to the cemetery, talk to your parents?"

"Not really. I mean, after mom died I used to go with my dad. But after he died, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Rachel offered to go with me a few times and she even said she would track Liz down wherever she was if I wanted, but I never took her up on the offer."

"Would you like to go sometime?"

Luke looked up at Lorelai in surprise – he wasn't expecting that from her. "Yeah, I think so."

"Maybe I could go with you… We could find a bible, I'm sure Mrs. Kim would help us out with that, and read 1 Corinthians 13 for them." Lorelai suggested.

"That sounds good. It's a plan. Thank you." He said with a grateful smile.

"Knock knoooock!" Sookie sing-sang from outside the door.

"Come in, Sook!" Lorelai shouted from inside.

"So, how's everyone doing in here?" Rory asked pushing a cart of food.

"We're good. I knew I smelled food. _Really_ good food." Lorelai said narrowing her eyes at her friend and her daughter.

"Yes, Lorelai. There is also coffee." Sookie saw Luke wrinkling his nose at the mention of coffee and turned to him with a smile.

"I prepared some peppermint tea for you as well, Luke." Rory assured him.

"Thank you, Rory." He said smiling at the girl.

"So, I guess it's your turn now, huh?" Lorelai asked with a grimace.

"Our turn?" Sookie asked pretending to be oblivious.

"We knew eventually you were coming in, Sookie." Luke stated. "Just say your piece so we can all move on."

"I don't have anything to say." Sookie assured them.

"I don't believe you. And even if it's true, I'm sure that one has _a lot_ to say." Lorelai said suspiciously pointing at Rory.

"Look, I do believe you two belong together and I've been saying that for years but I also know that's not how things work. It takes two to salsa." The chef explained.

"Tango, Sookie. It takes two to _tango_." Rory gently corrected.

"Exactly!" She agreed excited. "If you don't want to be together, there is nothing anyone can do about it. _However_ , I do believe that with a gentle push you can find whatever it is you seem to have lost."

"And you're here to give us said push?" Luke asked raising one of his eyebrows.

"Something like that, yes." Sookie answered with a serious nod. "I don't really have a lot to say. Lorelai, for years I've telling you Luke had a thing for you and I said all you had to do was look him in the eye. So that's what I want you to do: _look_ at each other. After we leave, take a moment, stand in front of each other and see what's right in front of you. And don't forget about your middle. Lorelai, the first time you and Luke broke up I told you about that couple who spent 40 years apart but managed to get back together. I thought that was gonna make you feel better, to know that eventually you and Luke would find each other again. You didn't like it because you told me you didn't want the other guy, you only wanted a married life if it was with Luke."

Rory handed Lorelai a folded piece of paper and said: "Please promise me both of you are gonna read it and neither one of you is gonna kill me."

They both exchanged a worried look, but nodded in agreement anyways.

"Okay, I'm off then. Bye, mom. Luke."

"Bye Rory. Thanks for the food, Sookie" Luke said with a wave.

"Bye hon. Great coffee, Sook. Talk to you later." Lorelai added savoring a cup.

"So, how do you wanna do this?" Lorelai asked.

"How do I wanna do what?" Luke asked confused.

"Read the letter of course!" She answered waving the paper in her hand.

"You read it, then I read it. Or the other way around. I don't know. It's just a letter." He said with a shrug.

Lorelai gasped really loudly and covered her mouth with her hands for effect. "I can't believe that. _Just a letter_? How dare you, Luke Danes! My beautiful daughter wrote it for us, so the least we could do…"

"Enough." Luke said putting his hand up to stop her. "Let's just read it together and get it over with."

"Fine." Lorelai said and sighed. "But you're no fun."

 _Dear Luke and Lorelai,_

 _For years this whole town – myself included – watched you two shamelessly flirting and never really taking it anywhere. I can recall multiple times in which I caught Luke starring at mom like she was the only one in the room and also times in which mom's face completely lit up when she looked at Luke or someone just mentioned his name. When mom got engaged to Max, the whole town reunited at Luke's just to see his face when he found out about that. When the wedding was called off, the moment Sookie gave Luke the news, he suddenly felt the urge to give the whole diner coffee in the house (bet you didn't know that, huh, mom?). One could say Luke was the one with the feelings and mom was only guilty of being oblivious. But they would be wrong. Luke, you're gonna be happy to hear she once asked me if I was okay with her dating you. (I just want to point out that I wasn't into the idea back then because mom wasn't ready for a Luke yet.) When Rachel came back that time, jealousy was all we could see in mom's face (bet you didn't know that, huh, Luke?)._

 _Luke, you waited for eight years before actually making a move on mom and have to admit I had never seen either of you that happy. In the other hand, when you broke up, I had never seen either of you so destroyed. I understand that trying again might be scary; even terrifying because if it doesn't work out it's possible you never recover from the heart break. In the other hand, if it does, you're probably gonna be the happiest people in Connecticut – except for when Luke gets grumpy about something. I hope you can find your way back to each other and I'm really rooting for you guys. Just don't forget lots of_ _talking, forgiving and healing have_ _to happen before you can move on with your lives._

 _Love, Rory._

Lorelai put the letter down and avoided Luke's gaze at all costs. Luke looked up and glued his eyes to the ceiling.

"Wow, sometimes that kid is just way too smart." Lorelai said with a grimace.

"Try all the time." Luke muttered under her breath.

"Luke, do you think you will ever be able to forgive me for what I did?" Lorelai asked in a chocked voice.

Luke crossed his arms over his chest and a single tear escaped his eyes. He didn't say anything, which obviously worried Lorelai.

"Luke." Lorelai said softly. "Please say something. Answer me."

"I don't know what to say, Lorelai." Luke said sincerely. "I think forgiving you is gonna be the easy part. _Forgetting_ is what I'm gonna have a hard time with."

Lorelai nodded her understanding. "Okay. That's just…"

"It doesn't mean that I don't want to. More than anything, I want to stop hurting so we can take the next step. And I'm sure you feel the same way."

She shook her head and sighed: "Yes. I wished I could pretend I can just trust you that we can fix this. But I don't. I keep thinking 'what's gonna stop that from happening again?'. Honestly, I have no real reason to think we can make this work. You broke me, Luke."

"Look at me, Lorelai." Luke asked her softly.

"What?" Lorelai asked confused.

"Look me in the eye and tell me what you see."

They stood up, face to face, no words. Luke shoved his hands into his pockets and just stood still. Lorelai slowly cocked her head to the side and nodded her head once. She stood in the tip of her toes and ran a hand through Luke's hair.

"Sad Burger-Boy." She whispered not taking her eyes off his.

"Sad Crazy-Lady." He whispered back, his hands now in her hips.

They stood like that for a while, just holding each other and not saying a word, both silently begging for whoever was out there to show them a way to fix what was broken.

 **Notes:** Brace yourselves because this is gonna be a bit long.

Obs1: More than once I catch myself trying to point the exact moment their relationship was doomed and I honestly think they were screwed the moment they stopped talking – which, for me, was after they got back together that first time.

Obs2: I was about to post this chapter when I found this post on Tumblr talking about season 6 (defending the writing and Luke's actions towards April). Luke always had Lorelai and Rory as his first priority for everything. However, when April showed up, everything changed completely. Luke's priority became April and, as we all know it, Luke doesn't deal well with more than one thing going on at the same time. Anyways, my point here is: I finally understand Luke's POV in the whole thing – I just don't agree with how he handled it. In case anyone gets curious about the whole post, just let me know.

Obs3: According to 5x03 (Written in the Stars) Luke and Lorelai met 4 years prior to the show – when Rory was 11/12. However, in the episode 5x14 (Say Something) when Lorelai mentions the caterpillar funeral she says Rory was 10. It's just one of those things happened a couple times when stuff didn't match time-line wise. I'm just clarifying.

Obs4: Dudes, can you believe we're only SEVEN days away from the revival?!


	6. Chapter Six – No, dear

**Chapter Six – No, dear.** _ **That's**_ **an intervention**

 _Previously…_

" _Look at me, Lorelai." Luke asked her softly._

" _What?" Lorelai asked confused._

" _Look me in the eye and tell me what you see."_

 _They stood up, face to face, no words. Luke shoved his hands into his pockets and just stood still. Lorelai slowly cocked her head to the side and nodded her head once. She stood in the tip of her toes and ran a hand through Luke's hair._

" _Sad Burger-Boy." She whispered not taking her eyes off his._

" _Sad Crazy-Lady." He whispered back, his hands now on her hips._

 _They stood like that for a while, just holding each other and not saying a word, both silently begging for whoever was out there to show them a way to fix what was broken._

Paris Geller burst into the room, followed by a very worried Rory, and threw herself into Lorelai's arms.

"I'm so sorry, Lorelai." Paris said not letting go. Rory gently pulled them apart and made a movement with her head, as to show her friend that Luke was also there. Paris looked him from the top of his (ugly) black cap to the tip of his boots and pointed her index finger straight at Luke's nose.

"You, I never really cared about. I mean, do I even know you?"

"Actually…" Luke tried to interrupt unsuccessfully.

"It doesn't matter and I don't care. The thing is: Lorelai is a _really_ close of friend of mine and you hurt her. So, if you ask me, you should just go straight to hell."

Rory noticed Paris had lost track of what she was supposed to be doing and cleared her throat – which seemed to bring Paris back to reality.

"However, God knows why, the greasy-flannel covered look with a backward baseball cap on top seems to get her going, so I say: get your shit together, both of you, and get back together already."

And just as fast as she had entered the room, she left it.

"Ladies and gentleman, Paris Geller for you." Rory said with an apologetically smile and dashed after Paris.

Both Luke and Lorelai were petrified for more than a minute, recovering their strength.

"You gotta give it to her: she is energetic." Lorelai said and snorted.

"That she is." Luke agreed. They avoided each other's gaze for a few moments until Luke finally took the courage and broke the silences cleaning his throat. "So…" he started unsure of where he was heading.

"Yeah?" Lorelai said cocking her head to the side.

"How much time did you spend with that girl?" Luke blurted out jerking his thumb towards the door.

"I mean, I think that…" She trailed off and Luke searched the room to find what held her attention like that. His eyes landed on the door – which was wide open.

"Do you think we should just… go?" He asked her.

"I don't know. I mean, I want to. But what if it's a trap?" Lorelai mused.

"A trap? Like an anvil is gonna fall in our heads and crash us dead?" Luke asked sarcastically.

"Maybe not _kill_ us. I think Rory wants to see if we would take the chance or not."

"Okay. And what would the point of that be, exactly?" He asked confused.

"Well, that should be a proof." Lorelai affirmed with a nod.

"A proof of what?" Luke asked.

"I don't know. Do I really have to figure everything out by myself? Do a little thinking too." She said with a shrug.

Their bickering ended the moment Luke landed eyes on Rory's hovering figure by the door.

"Rory?" Luke said cocking his head to the side.

"Hey." She said sheepishly. "I just want to… I mean, I think you would like to know that… I swear I didn't know she would…"

"How many?" Lorelai asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"How many what?" Luke asked confused.

"How many of my staff quit because they saw Paris?" Lorelai rephrased for her daughter.

Rory scratched the back of her head and took a deep breath before answering: "well, like two or three-ish."

"Ish? Can you be more specific?"

"More like all the kitchen staff and half of the cleaning crew."

Lorelai's mouth hung open and her eyes almost left her face.

"Look, it's not so bad." Rory tried to explain.

"How so?" Lorelai asked doubtfully.

"For starters, Michel is running after them." She said nonchalantly.

"Running?" Luke asked.

"When I said they quit what I actually meant is that they shouted _I quit_ and ran off without picking up their things or even changing."

Lorelai didn't say aa word; she just ran and glued her face to the window and broke out laughing. Luke immediately joined her and they kept laughing for a few more minutes while Michel ran around the inn' property apparently trying not to ruin his Italian shoes.

Luke suddenly stopped laughing and cleared his throat.

"Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore." He said and adjusted his cap nervously.

"Very funny, Luke." Lorelai said crossing still laughing at Michel.

"What is so funny, Lorelai?" Emily asked her daughter.

"Mom, dad. Good to see… How did you… When did you… I mean, why…" Lorelai started to babble, and Luke jumped to the rescue. "I think what Lorelai is trying to ask is, uh, why exactly are you here?"

"Rory called us." Richard explained.

"Rory? My Rory?" Lorelai asked confused and looked at her daughter.

"How many Rorys do you know, Lorelai?" Emily asked rolling her eyes.

"Rory?" Luke said a little unsure.

Emily didn't say anything; she just positioned Luke five feet away from Lorelai and made them turn towards each other.

"Mom, what are you doing?" Lorelai asked still looking at Luke.

"Just one more moment, Lorelai. I have to look at you." Emily said. "Don't move, Luke. I have to look at you too."

"And that's my cue to leave. Good luck you two." Rory said and got out before her grandmother sucked her into the madness.

After a few moments, Emily made a dismissive movement with her hand and Lorelai and Luke exchanged a terrified look.

"It's still there." Emily assured Lorelai.

"What is, mom?" Lorelai asked confused.

"The porter steakhouse look, of course." Emily answered as if it was obvious.

"What is she even talking about?" Luke asked obviously confused.

"Don't worry about it." Lorelai said. "It's just Emily being Emily."

Luke looked at Richard, who put his hands up in surrender and said: "Don't look at me. I have no idea what this is about."

"You never told him?" Emily asked surprise. "Interesting."

"Why is that interesting?" Lorelai asked annoyed.

"Well, maybe not interesting… But it sure explains a lot." Mrs. Gilmore explained.

"I know I'm gonna regret it, but I'll ask anyway: do you care to elaborate?"

"Luke, do you remember the first time I met you?" Emily asked turning her attention towards him.

"Was it Rory's 16th birthday party?" Luke said trying to summon the memory.

"Yes. The moment you set foot in Lorelai's house she threw herself at you."

"I had the ice." He said with a smirk.

"And I needed the ice." Lorelai added starting to get nervous.

"Luke, has anyone told you what your face is like when you're looking at Lorelai?"

Luke shook his head negatively and muttered "no" curious (and a little scared) to hear what Emily had to say.

"You look – and notice I'm using the _present_ tense – at Lorelai like she is a porter steak house. She walks into a room and it's like you're seeing her for the first time and she is the most beautiful woman you've ever seen. Whenever she talks your face lits up, even if she's just babbling about something crazy that I don't understand. Her name sounds different when you say it – it's like music."

"She is the most beautiful woman I've ever seen." Luke said sheepishly and his lips twitched a little forming a half-smile that didn't go unnoticed by Lorelai, who smirked and added: "And don't forget the lap dance."

"Lap dance?" Richard asked starting to get interested in the subject.

Luke turned his attention to Lorelai, his eyes demanding an explanation.

"Mom said you looked at me as if I was about to give you a lap dance."

"Looks." Emily interrupted. "He _looks_ at you like that."

Luke scratched the back of his neck, a little embarrassed, and started to stare at his shoes.

"Luke, has anyone told you what Lorelai's face is like when she is looking at you?" Emily asked him as if her daughter wasn't even there.

Once again wordlessly, Luke just shook his head.

"When my daughter looks at you, Luke, her eyes get a sparkle and they shine the brightest blue I've ever seen. It's like you're the only person in the whole world. As you probably know, Lorelai has always kept her life away from me – and I can't exactly blame her for all of that. When I found out the two of you had first started dating I can't say I was surprised; what surprised me was her reaction when I confronted her about it. I told her I wanted to meet you, but only if you were around to stay and I have to tell you: I've never seen this girl so determined to prove something to me. She went on and on about how this was it and you were her guy and she was finally gonna have a package of sorts."

Emily still had more to say, but when she saw the tears burning both Luke and Lorelai's eyes she decided it was best to stop – at least for the time being.

"Luke, I don't know the details of your breakup with my daughter and, honestly, it's better like that because considering how devastated she is, I'd probably kill you with my own hands. However, I had never seen her so happy as she was with you. That's the thing about great loves, you know? The person you love the most is also the one who can hurt you the most. God only knows how many times I hurt Emily and I almost ruined our wonderful marriage. My point is that you can get over pain, but love is timeless." Richard's voice broke a couple of times through his speech, but he never once stopped. Emily found herself weak in the knees and pressed her hands against her heart in order to keep herself together. Luke's tears were now floating freely and his heart was aching. Lorelai, however, wasn't quiet as everyone else. Her sobs filled the whole room – she became a complete mess.

"I'm so sorry, Luke. I'm sorry, Luke. You have to forgive me, Luke…." She kept repeating between her sobs until she was out of breath.

Luke turned to her and closed his eyes because what he was about to say was just too painful. "I think I already forgave you, Lorelai."

"It's the forgetting that is giving you trouble, right?" Lorelai said sadly and Luke just nodded swallowing the lump that had just formed in his throat.

"Luke, what happened?" Emily asked, concerned written all over her face.

"So much, Mrs. Gilmore. So damn much." He told her sincerely, his eyes completely lost.

"Lorelai, please, I can't stand seeing you so broken and not do anything about it." Richard told his daughter gently brushing her tear-covered cheeks.

"Oh, dad, I don't even know where to begin. We both screwed up so much. And if that wasn't enough, I was the one to nail the coffin for good." Lorelai said with a sarcastic laugh.

"What does that mean?" Emily asked.

"I slept with Christopher." She said, totally ashamed and already expecting the horror show that was about to start.

"I'm not following." Richard said with a frown.

"Lorelai proposed to me." Luke started, trying to shield Lorelai from her parents.

"We already knew that, Luke." Emily intervened with an eye-roll.

"Again. She proposed to me _again_. More like an ultimatum, if you want to worry about semantics. And I… I was stupid. I should have said yes and we would be married now. But to be honest there was so much wrong with our relationship by that point that I really don't know it would have been the best idea."

"You said no?" Emily asked horrified.

"Worse. I didn't say anything. And she walked away. And I didn't follow her. I just watched."

"Then, I went to the house and I just couldn't stay there. I looked everywhere and I felt really really really bad because Luke was there without actually being there. He never moved in completely, so I kept seeing pieces of him, but the lack of the whole him kept me reminding of that. I had to get out. I took the jeep and started to drive around. I passed by Sookie's, but I didn't want anyone in town knowing where I was and I couldn't keep barging in like that. I really contemplated going to Rory's place, but she had so much going on with Logan leaving. Believe me, I drove by your house, but I didn't even know what to say. You and dad wanted to buy me a house and I didn't even know if Luke still wanted me."

"And how the on Earth did you end up in Christopher's house?" Her mother demanded.

"Can we please stop saying his name?" Luke said to no one in particular.

"Honestly, mom? I don't know. Maybe it was because I had just seen him at dinner that Friday. I just ended up there and next thing I knew I was crying by the front door and the nanny was taking Gigi away. There was tequila involved – my biggest mistakes always have and then we were, you know, in his bed. Ugh, I don't want to remember that night. Everything was a mistake."

Lorelai looked up and saw something unexpected in her mother's face. It was different and weird. Could it be… _guilt_?

"I thought you guys were over. I mean, your dad and I were really determined to accept Luke, but he is Rory's daughter and I figured it wouldn't be a problem to have him over. And I honestly thought Luke would be joining us."

"Mom, stop! It had nothing to do with you inviting him over. It's not your fault. It's mine." Lorelai said decisively.

"Mine too. I pushed you away." Luke added sheepishly.

"We both screwed up." Lorelai suggested.

"That seems to be the latest headline." He agreed with a chuckle.

"I see." Richard said and got up.

"Richard, where do you think you're going?" Emily asked.

"Home. Aren't you coming? They talked, they admitted their mistakes and yet they're not running toward each other. Now, what does that tell you?"

"That they need more time." She said with a nod.

"To heal and to talk a little more." Richard added.

Emily also got up and before reaching the door turned towards the broken couple and said: "Try no to wait too long to fix this, okay? Tomorrow might be too late."

"Luke, my boy, I assure you it's much harder and painful to forget a love than to forget a betrayal. But make no mistake: it's a long road."

And with that, the Gilmores left and Luke and Lorelai remained still, completely astonished by what had just happened.

"Lorelai, I really do love you. A lot. But I also don't know if I can get over this… _him_."

"I understand. I really do love you, too. A lot. But I also don't know if I can ever trust you again. Luke, not only did you lie to me, you also broke my heart."

"Into a million pieces?" He offered. "I know. I feel the same."

"Do you think time is the only thing we need now? And if it is, how much time, exactly?" Lorelai asked him.

"I honestly don't know how to answer that or what to tell you. Do you think our love is really that deep? Enough to survive all this crap we've been putting each other through?" Luke shot back, fear wrote all over his face.

"No doubt in my mind." She assured him decisively.

"Time." Luke repeated and Lorelai just nodded.

"I wish we could back." Lorelai said and sighed.

"Home? We will. Soon enough."

"Not to a place… To a time." She clarified.

"Got a specific destination in mind?" He asked genuinely curious.

"Actually, yes, I do: our third date." Lorelai told him with a half smile.

"Our third date? I thought you hated it." Luke said confused.

"Why would I have hated it?"

"Well, it was kind of crappy. That place you wanted to go to had closed, so we changed plans last minute and it started to rain when we were at the gas station so we got stuck for almost two hours."

* * *

" _Are you sure this is the right place, Lorelai?" Luke asked when he stopped the truck._

" _Yes! I used to come here all the time before Rory and I moved to the Crap Shack. We would take the bus and she would bring books and sit on that bench over there and just read." Lorelai explained excitedly._

" _So you guys never actually went in there?" He asked pointing at the abandoned looking building in front of them._

" _We didn't have any money back then, so while she read I'd just look up and pretend, you know? Make up stories about going there, having a nice dinner and stopping by to sit on a bench after dessert." She told him with a dreamy expression._

" _How did you end up here in the first place?" Luke asked curiously._

" _You want the truth or the Rory version?" Lorelai asked with a laugh._

" _Why don't you give me both?"_

" _The truth is that I got lost. It was my day off and I had a doctors' appointment in Woodbury. I didn't like to tell Rory in advance because she would get really worked up. There was this one time she started memorizing diseases and tried to diagnose me – it was really scary for both of us. So, I'd tell her I had to run an errand and tell her we could stop by a bookstore or something after, so she would voluntarily offer to tag along. Mia offered to drive me, but I convinced her giving me directions and pointing the way to the bus stop would be enough. The thing about me is that I'm not great with directions so I got off at_ _the wrong stop and we started to wonder around with no destination in place. Then all of a sudden Rory just stopped walking and her face lit up. I looked at the direction of her gaze and saw this place. Since I'm a very creative person, I managed to use the situation to my advantage. And that's where the Rory version comes in. I told her that was a surprise and that I needed just to make a quick phone call to the inn and we could start playing. I call the doctor's office and apologized. We played, Rory sat down to read and I daydreamed about that building. She loved the day and asked me if we could go back there someday. We had many picnics here."_

" _When was the last time you guys were here?"_

" _I think it was when she got into Chilton. She had a half day at school and Mia gave me the morning off. We wanted to come before Yale, but the Europe thing took over most of our time in that summer."_

 _Luke looked at her and almost pinched his arm to assure himself he wasn't dreaming. There he was, sitting to the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and she was telling him about her dreams as a 20-something-year-old mom. No place else he would rather be._

" _Well, we aren't going to just stay here, are we?" Luke asked breaking the silence._

" _But it looks like it's closed. I mean, abandoned. It might be dangerous." Lorelai said._

" _It won't hurt to take a look around, though. Unless you're scared." He said defiantly._

" _Scared? How dare you, Lucas." She said and got off the truck. "You know, you should be ashamed of yourself. Me? Scared? As a wise lion said once,'I laugh at the face of danger'."_

" _I'm sorry, did you just say lion?" Luke asked circling the truck and meeting Lorelai near the entrance._

" _I'm obviously quoting a classic." Lorelai stated with a roll of eyes._

" _Classic? A National Geographic documentary?" Luke asked genuinely confused._

" _No, dude. The Lion King. Seriously, Luke, have you never seen this movie?" She asked with mock horror._

" _Are you quoting a cartoon?"_

" _It's not a cartoon. It's a CLASSIC. From the 90s. Didn't you hear what I just said?"_

" _I give up. Let's pretend we didn't just have this conversation. Are we going in or not?" Luke said throwing his hands up in the air._

" _Nah." Lorelai said and shrugged. "You're too scared."_

" _Unbeli…" He started but stopped himself knowing better than to try something even remotely reasonable with Lorelai. "We can sit on a bench for a while, if you want and look for some place to have dinner after. In fact, the diner is still open – I could give Lane a call and ask her to set something aside for you."_

" _No, let's just go. Maybe we can schedule a picnic here on a Sunday?" Lorelai suggested._

" _We could invite Rory too if she is not too busy with school." Luke said sheepishly._

 _Lorelai's face turned into a huge grin and she pulled Luke for a kiss._

" _You are amazing, you know that?" She asked him, still grinning._

" _I do, but I wouldn't reject a memo or something."_

" _Very funny. C'mon. Let's look for someplace to eat. I'm starving."_

 _After driving around for a while and getting nowhere, Lorelai suggested a stop to ask for directions._

" _First of all, we are not lost. The only reason I'm agreeing with you is because it looks like the sky is gonna fall and it wouldn't be bad to fill up the tank."_

" _Thank God we stopped. Man, look at this rain." Lorelai said looking up at the water falling from the sky._

" _Right? Cats and dogs at any point now." Luke said with a chuckle._

" _I could eat a hot dog right now. Or five." Lorelai licking her lips._

" _Only five? I'm surprised." Luke commented with mock horror._

" _Very funny. For your information… Yeah, I could eat more than five. But I wouldn't." She assured him._

" _Because you would get sick?" He offered._

" _No, silly. I wouldn't get sick. But five is just enough so there's room for dessert." Lorelai said and playfully punched his arm._

" _Right. How could I forget?" Luke said with a nod._

" _Hey, Luke?"_

" _Yes, Lorelai?"_

" _I'm sorry." She said sincerely._

" _About what?" He asked not following her line of thought._

" _Ruining our date. I got us to a place that doesn't exist anymore, then I got us lost and now it's pouring. Noah is gonna pass by at any moment now."_

" _You didn't ruin our date. We're spending time together, getting to know each other better and I can't speak for you, but I'm having fun." Luke said seriously._

" _Yeah, but we didn't eat anything and now we're stuck at a gas station." Lorelai said apologetically._

" _Well, that we can fix." He said pointing at a vending machine._

" _Correct me if I'm wrong, but did THE Luke Danes just suggested dinner from a vending machine?"She said in mock shock._

" _It's not ideal, but it's better than the alternative." Luke commented sheepishly._

" _Which is?" Lorelai asked slightly raising one of her eyebrows._

" _I've seen you hungry. It's not pretty. Actually, if I'm being honest, you're almost insufferable. Worse, if Rory is with you actually." He explained with a smirk._

 _She playfully swatted his chest and gasped. "I can't believe you. It's just our third date. We were still supposed to be all cute-ish to each other."_

" _Lorelai, I've known you for too long. Also, I'm done pretending." Luke told her honestly._

" _Fine! Vending machine it is." She agreed almost out of breath._

" _Okay, you go pick up what you want and I just have to talk to that man over there really quickly." He said pointing toward one of the employees._

 _Lorelai already had her gaze fixed on the items inside the machine, so she just sent a dismissive wave in Luke's general direction, without actually paying attention to what he was saying. Not too many feet away, Luke was rubbing the back of his neck while talking to Jeff, the employee._

" _So, I know this is a really long shot, but is there any chance you have anything date related lying around? I can pay you, no problem." Luke asked and kept throwing glances in Lorelai's direction to be sure she wasn't paying any attention._

" _What, like a calendar?" Jeff asked completely confused._

" _No, not that kind of date. I mean a date-date. Flowers, candles, dinner and dancing kind of thing." He clarified for the man._

" _Ah, I see. You're in luck, my friend. I always keep a blanket around for cold nights. Candles not so much, this being a gas station and all." He said and chuckled. "I might also have some flowers. My Mrs. likes to bring them around from time to time to cheer up the place. I'll be right back."_

 _Just as Lorelai had picked pretty much one (or five) of everything, Luke was approaching with a blanket and some (almost) dead flowers grinning at her surprised reaction. Jeff even managed to find an old Valentine's Day card, but Luke said it wasn't necessary._

" _What is all this?" Lorelai asked surprised and excited._

" _Last time I checked, no matter how bad and unplanned, this is still a date." Luke said nonchalantly._

 _Lorelai nodded and squealed with joy, jumping up and down while Luke set the whole thing up._

" _And you're still a gentleman. My gentleman." She said shamelessly batting her eyelashes at him._

" _Something like that, yeah. So, what did you get us?" Luke asked and proceeded to make faces at the junk food she was so happy to be ingesting._

" _Thank you for today, Luke. I really had fun." Lorelai said when Luke dropped her off at the Crap Shack._

" _I'm sorry I couldn't make any better." Luke said sheepishly._

" _Are you kidding? It was amazing and if anyone is sorry, that person is me because I'm the one who dragged us all the way to Woodbury to an abandoned place which caused us to have dinner at a gas station from a vending machine."_

" _Nah, it's fine. I loved seeing that place and we're gonna go back there as soon as that busy daughter of yours has some time." He assured her._

" _Okay, then." Lorelai placed a gentle kiss on Luke's lips and went inside to call her daughter._

* * *

"So, grandma, how do you think they're doing?" Rory asked adding more cream to her coffee.

Emily pursed her lips and sadly looked at her husband. Richard nodded and took over for his wife: "you see, Rory, Luke and Lorelai have been having problems for a while now but there was something your mom did after the ultimatum that was a last straw of sorts and now they don't know how to deal with the delicate situation."

Rory smirked and Emily, obviously, made sure her granddaughter knew she didn't appreciate the gesture. "Young lady, there's just nothing funny about that."

"I know that, grandma. But I also know that mom slept with dad – slept, as in had sex." She added and her grandparents' eyes grew as wide as eyes can grow.

"Oh, I see." Emily said still recovering from the shock. "I suppose your mom doesn't keep _anything_ from you, really. Apparently, they have forgiven each other for the mistakes."

"Forgetting seems to be the issue they can't figure out, Rory." Her grandfather explained.

"I see." Rory said nodding her head.

"You had mentioned you had a secret weapon to use?" Emily asked furrowing her eyebrows.

"Well, _two_ to be more specific. If anyone can seal the deal, it's them." She explained as vaguely as possible.

"I sure hope they can get the job done. And I really mean that. Your mom looks so miserable." Emily said sadly.

"I know. I'm sure it'll work. But, just in case, Mrs. Kim is coming by just after to guilt them into being together." Rory said with a knowing smile.

Emily and Richard were still confused but decided to leave it to Rory. They said their goodbyes and, before reaching the car, Richard gently pulled on his wife's arm.

"Yes, Richard?" She said a little startled.

"Emily, are you sure about this?" He asked seriously.

"Going home? I must certainly am. Unless you wanna go somewhere first?" Emily suggested a little confused.

"No, not that. I mean about the house. Per your instructions, I called the real estate agent and requested that the house was held until today and I assured them that by this afternoon we would have a final answer." Richard informed Emily.

"Of course we're keeping the house. Even if Lorelai doesn't want it, I think she and Luke will appreciate the prospect of having a new place to start the new – and hopefully – final chapter of their lives. This has to be their last breakup." She explained to him.

"I understand. And you're right. One way or another this is their last breakup. If they get back together, it will be permanent. If they don't, it will be even _more_ permanent." He said and they continued their way to the car in silence, both silently wishing their daughter could finally get the happiness she always deserved.

"Sookie, I think it's time for my secret weapons." Rory announced entering the kitchen.

"Your grandparents didn't have any luck, huh?" Sookie asked a little disappointed.

"Well, their intervention had some effect, but we still need more." She explained. "Apparently, Luke already forgave mom for sleeping with dad, but he isn't sure he can take her back. And mom doesn't know if she can trust Luke again with her heart, you know?"

"That's bad, popcorn. Very bad." The chef said worriedly.

"Which part, exactly?" Rory asked confused.

"The whole thing. I mean, if they can't move past this, there is no way they can ever get together."

"Grandma and grandpa said they just need time."

"Let's hope they're right."

"Luke, how long do you think Rory and Sookie are keeping us here?" Lorelai asked.

"I don't know. I figured by now they would let us out. I mean, we forgave each other. Right?" Luke asked back.

"Right. But we're not back together." _Yet, I hope_.

"And are we sure we will get back together?" He asked a little unsure.

"I think we're sure we _want_ to get back together." She said not really decided.

"Right." Luke said.

"Right." Lorelai repeated.

"Is it true I look at you like I'm about to get a lap dance?" Luke asked after a few moments of silence.

"Is it true my eyes shine the brightest blue when I look at you?" Lorelai asked in response.

"Are you just going to answer my questions with more questions?" He asked annoyed.

"Is that gonna drive you crazy?" She asked with a knowing smile.

"Absolutely." Luke said glaring angrily at her.

"Then yes, I'm going to answer your questions with more questions. Unless…" Lorelai started but didn't finish.

"Unless what?" Luke asked.

"Do you have a pen?"

"Ah, jeez."

"I'm kidding. I just wanted to see the vein." Lorelai said holding back a little laugh. Luke looked at her sort of confused, so Lorelai elaborated: "Whenever you get really angry – usually at Taylor or Kirk, very few times at Babette and Miss Patty and maybe only once or twice at me and Rory – this vein o your forehead pops up like it's Christmastime."

Luke's face softened when he noticed something: the blue in Lorelai's eyes was different, _shinier_. _Maybe that's what Emily was talking about. They do look bluer_ _and definitely shinier._

"Lorelai…" He started but stopped suddenly, completely lost on her. It was like he was seeing her for the first time all over again.

Lorelai saw him trailing off and cocked her head to the side, studying his face inch by inch. Emily's words seemed to click on her head and her lips turned into a huge smile. _Mom was right. He does say my name differently._

Before either of them could process this discovery or even understand what they were feeling, their lips were already locked. Their hands found each other's bodies and they felt like teenagers sharing a first kiss. Lorelai's cheeks were burning red and Luke couldn't believe how soft Lorelai's lips tasted on his. Luke's hands grasped Lorelai's waist and pulled her as close as possible – so close that if Isaac Newton was alive he would rethink the idea of two bodies not being able to occupy the same place at the same time. Lorelai's hands sent the black baseball cap flying to the floor and her fingers were running through Luke's hair, then through his hard and incredibly well defined back, where they found rest. Time stopped and the whole world disappeared. There was no Christopher, no lost daughter, no secrets and no lies, only Luke and Lorelai. They only pulled apart when the need for air became stronger than the desire to keep their lips pressed together.


End file.
